Novozymes Acquires EMD/Merck Crop BioScience

Joanna Schroeder

Novozymes had acquired EMD/Merck Crop BioScience from Merck KGaA for US $275 and marks the company’s third major purchase in the agricultural biologicals sector in the past three years. EMD/Merck Crop BioScience is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the majority of the company’s activities take place in North and South America. Novozymes has spent the past few years building up its portfolio of sustainable solutions in the agricultural sector.

According to a press release from Novozymes, EMD/Merck Crop BioScience has approximately 165 employees and has generated average annual sales growth of roughly 15 percent during the last seven years. It is expected to generate sales of US $60 million in 2010 and will support Novozymes’ long-term sales growth expectation of more than 10 percent. EMD/Merck Crop BioScience’s EBIT margin supports Novozymes’ long-term EBIT margin expectation of more than 20 percent.

“The acquisition of EMD/Merck Crop BioScience strengthens our global position in the growing industry for agricultural biologicals providing products that enhance the natural growth and yield of crops,” said Steen Riisgaard, CEO of Novozymes. “We have found in EMD/Merck Crop BioScience a company that has a strong strategic fit with our existing BioAg business. In brief, it has a complementary product range and geographical scope, a strong R&D pipeline, and very talented people. Together we can utilize Novozymes’ unique biotechnology platform to bring a new level of innovation to the market.”

Novozymes cites many reasons that EMD/Merck Crop BioScience is an asset to their business portfolio but among them are the fact that their product line-up focuses on biological growth enhancers and nitrogen inoculants primarily used in the production of soybean and pulses. This supports Novozymes’ current nitrogen and phosphate inoculants business.

“Novozymes is dedicated to continued innovation in agriculture, thereby enabling farmers to become even more cost and resource efficient,” said Riisgaard. “In a world that continuously needs to produce more food for a soaring population without further stressing the environment, farmers need effective but more sustainable ways to grow crops. This has led to a strong interest in biofertilizers and other biotechnological solutions.”

Novozymes entered the biofertility market in 2007 with the acquisition of Philom Bios in Canada and has gradually increased its activities, most recently with the acquisition of Turfal in Brazil in August this year. The activities of EMD/Merck Crop BioScience will be integrated into Novozymes’ BioAg organization, which is part of Novozymes’ BioBusiness division. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed between February and May 2011.

Agribusiness, Biofuels, Soybean

New Website For Coalition To Support Iowa’s Farmers

Chuck Zimmerman

A new website has been launched for the Coalition To Support Iowa’s Farmers.

The colorful site is chocked full of new content featuring new agricultural information, program updates, farm families the Coalition has worked with and easy, user-friendly navigation.

“Our new website is specifically designed to help Iowa livestock farmers successfully and responsibly manage changes to their farms,” said CSIF Executive Director, Brian Waddingham. “Being a livestock farmer is a difficult business, compounded by the growing mass of rules and regulations. The new web site is a resource tool for those farm families who need more information so they can stay rooted in rural Iowa.”

In addition to information about the latest rules and regulations impacting livestock farmers, the new site also features information about siting considerations. “Many farmers we work with are multi-generational; it’s important to them to care for the land and waterways so they can pass their farm down to the next generation, that’s why careful selection of sites is so important,” Waddingham said. The new web site offers considerations that may impact site selection from air modeling and typography to location of public use areas.

The new web site also highlights steps farmers may take with their neighbors when making changes to their farm. “Neighbor relations is an important part of a farmer’s business plan and the site provides some initial guidance on how to do that,” said Waddingham.

Ag Groups, Internet

NCGA and Pioneer Creating More Agvocates

Chuck Zimmerman

Here at ZimmComm we’re all about creating an army of agvocates. That’s why we support efforts like this one from the National Corn Growers Association with support from Pioneer Hi-Bred.

Starting in January 2011, NCGA will launch a series of hour-long social media training webinars sponsored by Pioneer for farmers. Each month, NCGA members, state corn association staff and others interested in using the Internet to promote today’s farming will take part in live online presentations that will focus on how growers can benefit personally and professionally using various social networking mediums.

In addition to covering the mechanics of utilizing social media, webinar curriculum will include strategies for goal-based outreach, developing content for conversations and becoming an online ambassador of the corn industry. The goal of the program is to grow the enthusiasm and activity of corn farmers who will use social networking as a useful tool to connect and educate policy makers, regulators and the general public.

Ag Groups, NCGA, Pioneer

Illinois Aerial Applicator Had Good Season

Chuck Zimmerman

During the National Agricultural Aviation Association convention I met Don Younglove, R&R Flight Services (not pictured), during the trade show. He’s got three planes and the business is located in Mendota, IL. He’s a big proponent of BASF products by the way!

I asked Don how business was this season and he says that it was good. It was a wet year in his area and that meant spraying a lot of Headline fungicide. He was enjoying the convention because the trade show allows him to talk with company representatives. I actually found him in the AgSync booth. He says that he converted his system to AgSync this year. He says the conversion was “a little tough” but by the end of the year he found that they sprayed more acres in less time than the year before.

You can listen to my interview with Don here: Don Younglove Interview

2010 NAAA Convention Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the NAAA Convention is sponsored by BASF.

Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Audio, BASF, NAAA

HSUS Boss Comments Criticized

Chuck Zimmerman

HumaneWatch.org made sure people know about the latest problem HSUS is having. They ran this full page ad in the Sunday New York Times. It criticizes the “recent claim of Wayne Pacelle, the President of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), that convicted dog abuser Michael Vick “would do a good job as a pet owner.” The ad condemns HSUS for supporting the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback’s ownership of dogs and urges all recurring HSUS donors to cancel their memberships and stop giving to the organization. I just love what Dave Martosko and company are doing in making sure people get the truth about this anti animal agriculture organization.

HumaneWatch.org points to the Eagles’ $50,000 donation to HSUS in 2010 as one possible motivation for Pacelle’s indefensible suggestion that Vick should be allowed to own more dogs. Despite the words “humane society” in its name, HSUS is not affiliated with local humane societies anywhere in America. It spends tens of millions every year supporting a staff of more than 700, lobbyists in all 50 states, and an $11 million executive pension plan. Yet during the past two years, HSUS shared less than 1 percent of its money with hands-on pet shelters.

“It’s absolutely shocking that the leader of America’s biggest animal rights group would side with a convicted dog fighting felon instead of with helpless pets,” said David Martosko, CCF’s Director of Research and the editor of HumaneWatch.org.

Within 24 hours of Michael Vick’s arrest for running a Virginia dog fighting ring, HSUS began raising money online to “care for the dogs seized” at Vick’s home. Wayne Pacelle later admitted to The New York Times that HSUS was not caring for the dogs. Pacelle also recommended that officials “put down” (kill) the animals. Despite HSUS’s wishes, most of those dogs have since been successfully rehabilitated.

Read the copy of the ad by clicking on this link Read More

Animal Activists, Wackos

A Mid-Winter’s Tale From Syngenta

Chuck Zimmerman

One of the Syngenta Seeds bloggers (Rich Lee) has written a holiday poem that ties in the delivery of seed. Here’s an excerpt. You’ll need to go to Dirt on Seeds to read the whole thing.

It was the season before spring work; all is covered in snow,

‘tis the time we are frozen, when nothing will go.

The tractors are tucked, all snug in the shed,

in the hope that warm weather soon was ahead.

And dreaming of green crops and new record yields,

I could almost smell the dirt from freshly-plowed fields.

Read rest of poem

Agribusiness, Syngenta

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

    Red Sky At Night

    Melissa Sandfort

    Have you ever heard of the saying, “Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky in morning, sailors take warning.”? Unfortunately, my husband took this picture in the morning, and I think it was cold and very windy that day. The saying held true.

    And, I don’t remember Nebraska being this windy when I was growing up. Maybe it’s the weather this year, but we’ve had an exceptionally high number of windy days. Or maybe it’s just me. Ever notice the difference in how you interpreted things as a child versus how you see them as an adult? When you’re younger, everything is bigger, more grand, even more fabulous than you ever imagined. And somehow, as we get older, we seem to lose our child-like fascination and the extraordinary become plain.

    I just read a series of articles in my Real Simple magazine (which by the way, is the best magazine out there, second only to all the ag mags I read, of course) about happiness. In the editor’s note, she says, “Think small, and just look around you.”

    So maybe I should quit focusing on the impending gloomy weather because of the old saying about the red sky, and just look around and appreciate the beauty of the morning landscape that my husband captured on the camera.

    Until we walk again …

    Uncategorized

    Save the Chestnut!

    Cindy Zimmerman

    Everybody’s heard about chestnuts roasting on an open fire, especially at this time of year, but how many of us have actually ever had any?

    Apparently, there’s a reason for that. According to the American Chestnut Foundation, the American chestnut tree once reigned over 200 million acres of eastern woodlands from Maine to Florida, and from the Piedmont west to the Ohio Valley, until succumbing to a lethal fungus infestation, known as the chestnut blight, during the first half of the 20th century. They estimate that four billion American chestnuts were destroyed by the disease.

    The American Chestnut Foundation was started in 1983 by a group of plant scientists with the goal of developing a blight-resistant American chestnut tree through research and breeding. Obviously, that requires funding and you can help by giving that hard-to-buy-for person on your Christmas list a really special gift this year – an Annual Sponsor membership to The American Chestnut Foundation worth two potentially blight-resistant chestnut trees!

    I am not kidding. According to ACF, a gift membership includes a subscription to the bi-monthly magazine, access to their most advanced, potentially blight-resistant Restoration Chestnuts for your own planting, and expert advice on growing and caring for American chestnut trees.

    If that is not cool enough, they even have a whole chestnut gift store – really! There’s books, posters, prints, handcrafted stuff made from chestnut wood, t-shirts, hats and more. Check it out at shop.acf.org. Guaranteed to be a Christmas gift they will never expect!

    Uncategorized