New Holland T8 and T9 Details

Chuck Zimmerman

Last week New Holland unveiled their new T8 and T9 tractors at the Farm Progress Show. I sat down with two of their marketing managers to learn more about these machines. Thanks to Gene Hemphill, media tent master and photographer, for taking the pictures.

Let’s look at the T8 Series first. There are five models of these tractors that range from 235 to 339 hp. I spoke with Sean Dorosz to learn what’s new in this series.

All T8 Series tractors feature a rugged Ultra Command™ full powershift transmission, powered by Tier IVa Cursor 9L engines developed and produced by Fiat Powertrain Technologies. These engines provide constant hydraulic flow even under extreme load. Standard hydraulic flow is a generous 43 gallons per minute (gpm) and with the Megaflow™ pump option, capacity climbs to 72 gpm. Engine Power Management provides up to 50 hp of extra power in high-demand conditions.

You can listen to my interview with Sean here: Interview With Sean Dorosz

Next up is the T9 Series. These tractors range between 350 to 600 hp depending on which frame size you choose. To find out what’s new about this series I spoke with Wade Prouse.

All T9 Series tractors are powered by Tier IVa Cursor engines developed and produced by Fiat Powertrain Technologies. (9 liter engines in T9.390; 13 liter engines in T9.450, T9.505, T9.560, T9.615 and T9.670.). All models feature the efficiency of New Holland Ground Speed Management, which intuitively manages both engine load and transmission speeds to optimize performance and fuel economy.

You can listen to my interview with Wade here: Interview With Wade Prouse

Farm Progress Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, Equipment, Farm Progress Show, New Holland, Tractor

Pioneer Boreas Is Hurricane On Wheels

Chuck Zimmerman

One of the most unique pieces of equipment on display at the Farm Progress Show was a wind machine. This hurricane on wheels is named after the Greek God of the cold north wind – Boreas. Unfortunately we couldn’t fire this monster up for a demonstration due to safety concerns but it still got a lot of attention.

To find out just what Pioneer is using it for I spoke with Scott Nelson, Agronomy Research Manager. He says it was developed to screen all their hybrids for tolerance to brittle snap, early root lodging and late stand ability. Every hybrid gets screened by the machine. The machine has 85 hp. fans that can drive a wind up to 100 mph. Scott says waiting for natural winds was too unreliable so this machine has increased their ability to test more frequently. There are four of these machines in use. He says this program has improved their product stand ability tremendously.

You can listen to my interview with Scott here: Interview With Scott Nelson

Farm Progress Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, Equipment, Farm Progress Show, Pioneer

United Soybean Board Update

Chuck Zimmerman

The United Soybean Board was represented by Chairman, Phil Bradshaw, a soybean grower from Illinois, at the Farm Progress Show. I spent a few minutes with him to get an update on USB activities while he was visiting ag media.

Phil just got back from a trip to Japan to promote U.S. soybeans. He says they’re our 3rd largest customer. When it comes to export markets like Japan he can’t emphasize how important they are. Phil says fifty five percent of our soybeans are exported. The domestic market is still vital too and for that reason USB supports animal agriculture, the biggest component of the market. I asked him about the crop conditions in his area and he said they’ve got Sudden Death Syndrome for the first time but he’s still expecting a good crop.

You can listen to my interview with Phil here: Interview With Phil Bradshaw

Farm Progress Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, Farm Progress Show, Soybean, USB

Agriculture: A Growing Story

Melissa Sandfort

“Agriculture: A Growing Story” will be the 2010 topic of the annual Farm-City Week Symposium held at the Lancaster Host Resort in Lancaster, Pa., on Thursday, Nov. 18. The public is invited to attend.

The purpose of this symposium will be to explore friendly methods that can help assist the urban media when preparing news or feature stories that could significantly and negatively impact farmers, ranchers and the many agribusiness industries.

The Symposium begins at 10:30 a.m. EST and will continue until noon. Discussions from 11 a.m. until noon will be broadcast live over the nationally syndicated AgriTalk radio show, hosted by another nationally noted broadcaster, Mike Adams. It will be followed by a lunch from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. with a special speaker.

Symposium participants and the lunch speaker will be announced later.

For more information on the National Farm-City Council Symposium on “Agriculture: A Growing Story,” contact Holly Fritz at 610.621.2253 or holly.fritz@hbfritz.com.

The event kicks off National Farm-City Week from Nov. 19-26.

Education, Events

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • The National Dairy FARM Program (Farmers Assuring Responsible Management) is now accepting enrollment in the Animal Care Program. This officially launches the second phase of the implementation process, which includes the start of on-farm evaluations for participating producers.
  • Farmer’s Independent Research of Seed Technologies (F.I.R.S.T.) has selected Farm Journal Media as its exclusive national media partner to publish and distribute its annual results.
  • John Deere and Successful Farming magazine’s Agriculture.com have recently launched an online game called “Steer Your Deere” to showcase the new ActiveCommand Steering (ACS) system.
  • Dow AgroSciences LLC announced it is acquiring the assets of the Colorado based seed company Grand Valley Hybrids.
Zimfo Bytes

Fans Get Pumped Up During Ethanol Pump Rally

Joanna Schroeder

Many people have no idea exactly how many products are made with corn as an ingredient, myself included. But I learned a lot about just how important corn is to our daily lives during today’s Iowa Corn Fed Game Day pump rally held at the Kum & Go in Riverside, Iowa.

Here are a few other things I learned today about the role Iowa corn farmers play:

  • 60 cents of each gallon of E85 purchased stays in the state of Iowa
  • For each gallon of E85 you purchase, 85 cents stays in America; whereas if you purchase E10, only 10 cents stays in America while 90 cents heads out of our borders
  • Iowa is the leading producer of corn and ethanol in the country
  • Iowa boasts 40 ethanol plants that produce more than 3 billion gallons of ethanol each year saving consumers money at the pump with each mile they drive

Now since this promotion was pumping up football fans for the Iowa State versus Iowa game, here are two football facts:

  • Iowa is ranked #9 in the country; yet non-ranked Iowa State has the most difficult schedule this year
  • Iowa State is going to win this year’s football game

So where did I learn these nifty facts? From an actual corn farmer, Dick Gallagher, who was on hand to educate consumers about ethanol blended fuels as well as educate consumers about all the products that have corn in them..shirts, biodegradable plastics, carpet, tires, and more. They all use corn as one of their ingredients and whether you realize it or not, our lives would not, and could not, be the same without our corn farmers. So let’s take a moment to thank them. Thank you!

Speaking of our corn farmers, they are growing enough corn to meet all of our needs for food, feed and fuel, both here in America as well as overseas and they are doing it each year using less land.

Kum & Go was a sponsor of today’s pump rallies and they have been a long-time ethanol supporter. Matt Chase, with Kum & Go told me that 31 of their stores in Iowa sell E85, more than any other retailer, and all of their stations sell E10 blended fuels. This is a photo of Matt with Herky, the mascot of his favorite team.

The Iowa Corn Fed Game Day promotion is sponsored by Iowa Corn Growers Association and continues all week long leading up to game day on Saturday. The game begins at 2:30 pm CST but come early. Iowa Corn will have a booth set up at Krause Family Plaza at 10:00 am where they will hosting some fun games as well as the chance to win $5,000 in free food and $2,500 in free ethanol-blended fuel. You can also sign up online at www.iacornfed.com.

And one last cool fact to leave you with….Herky the Hawk is a HUGE fan of ethanol.

Check out the photos from the pump rally here.

Corn, Ethanol, Food, Video

Bio-Forge Shows Success at Managing Stress

Joanna Schroeder

Thousands of corn acres have been under various types of stress this year, many under the stress of too much rain. Corn that has undergone too much stress doesn’t perform well causing a grower’s yield to be down, and thus his profit. However, growers who have used Bio-Forge have seen their corn manage stress much better, leading to higher yields.

Larry Litner, with StollerUSA, has been spending quite a bit of time with growers this summer and he has seen first hand how Bio-Forge has performed under these stressful conditions. He said that he has been impressed with its performance as have the growers.

“Even starting from the very early spring, we’ve had some wet, cold soils. Then we had a wet summer, so we’ve had a lot of wet stress on all crops, all year long,” explained Litner. He has been out in the fields almost all summer looking at different crops and he said he is seeing with Bio-Forge much better root development. Better root development leads to better performance and he said he’s seeing better pod set on the soybeans and better ear fill on the corn.

“I was checking some fields yesterday, saw a 30 percent increase on pod set with soybeans and we’re seeing 18 rows versus 14 to 16 rows on the ears of corn when we compare treated versus untreated,” said Litner.

Bio-Forge primarily helps to manage stress and by doing that helps the plant to develop a better root system. A stronger, more well developed root system can then better manage a multitude of issues including managing ethylene stress as it begins to accumulate during adverse conditions.

Many growers are applying Bio-Forge with their seed treatment but for for those who don’t, it can also effectively be applied to corn during the v4 to v7 stage of growth and to soybeans just prior to the R1 stage.

You can learn more by listening to my interview with Larry Litner. Bio-Forge Shows Success at Managing Stress

Check out our Farm Progress Photo Album.

Audio, Corn, Farm Progress Show, Farm Shows, Soybean

What’s New With Leica Geosystems

Chuck Zimmerman

AgWired sponsor, Leica Geosystems, was very active at the Farm Progress Show. Here’s the team getting the job done when I stopped by. I spoke with Harlan Little, North American Business Manager, on the far right, to learn what’s new with Leica.

Harlan says they’ve got a lot of interest in their touch screen units, the mojoMINI and mojo3D. He says farmers who stopped by loved getting their hands on them. Precision ag was in more evidence at this year’s Farm Progress Show than I can remember and one of the reasons is increased adoption in the industry. Harlan and I chat about what’s happening in the whole precision area.

You can listen to my interview with Harlan here: Interview With Harlan Little

Farm Progress Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, Farm Progress Show, Leica Geosystems

John Deere Brings New Generation of 8R Tractors to the Fields

Joanna Schroeder

John Deere has released its next version of the 8R Tractors that were originally released last year. This upgraded version integrates the “smart-tractor” concept into the row-crop tractors. I caught up with Cody Dicken during the Farm Progress Show to take a look at the new 8R Tractor and learn more about its new features.

“First and foremost, customers will notice new styles and new lights on the front grill. But quickly when they step into it, they’ll notice that the power levels have increased by about a 10-15 percent power increase depending on the model,” explained Dicken.

The 8360R and the 8360RT get up to almost 300 btu horsepower and Dicken continued, “From what we can see, these are the most powerful row crop tractors anywhere in the industry.”

One advantage of the new 8R Tractors is that farmers are easily able to integrate the new GPS technologies into their operations.

“Last year when we came out with the 2010 8R we introduced the Command Center on the seat. This year, we’ve taken the Command Center to the next level,” said Dicken. “We now have an option to enable the tractor with a touch steer display and the GreenStar applications are now available.”

With the Command Center, growers can also operate AutoTrack and SwatchControl Pro, which makes it easier for growers to be able to use the technology.

You can customize the tractor to meet your needs so it works from a small to medium operation all the way up to an extra large operation. Not ready for all the bells and whistles yet? Don’t worry. You can add technologies as your operation grows.

To learn more, visit your local John Deere dealer. They are accepting orders now and manufacturing will begin in January 2011 for delivery in time for next growing season.

You can also learn more by listening to my interview with Cody Dicken. Cody Dicken Talks 8R Tractors

Check out our Farm Progress Photo Album.

Audio, Equipment, Farm Progress Show, Farm Shows, John Deere, Precision Agriculture, Tractor

Introducing Agrisure Viptera for Pest Control

Joanna Schroeder

This year during Farm Progress, Syngenta launched the Agrisure Viptera 3111 trait stack, its new breakthrough in pest control. Syngenta’s Grant Ozipko said that their customers are really excited about the product, and for good reason.

Syngenta customers who are participating in trials are seeing and experiencing a new level of control, the highest level of control soon to be available on the market according to Ozipko, as well as the broadest spectrum of control. Once Agrisure Viptera hits the market in time for the 2011 planting season, it will control 14 different pests including corn earworm, fall army worm, Western bean cut worm, and black cut worm, among others.

The protection is something Ozipko says growers are confident about when they plant the trait stack in their fields. “They’re going to have protection from planting all the way through harvest,” said Ozipko.

Ozipko continued, “At the end of the day, the grower is really driven by yield. We’re experiencing a 14 bushel benefit. Growers are excited about that 14 bushels per acre in the presence of corn earworm.”

This equates to about a half ton truck of grain on every acre and Ozipko said this is a pretty big yield loss if growers don’t control pests.

Regardless of environmental conditions, Agrisure Viptera is going to provide protection against pests. Many farmers in the Midwest suffered from excess moisture this growing season that can lead to mycotoxin or aflotoxin from pests that get into the corn ear. However, planting Agrisure Viptera can reduce damage from those pests, minimizing toxins and help the grower market his grain more effectively.

You can learn more about Agrisure Viptera at www.agrisureviptera.com and by listening to my interview with Grant Ozipko here. Introducing Agrisure Viptera for Pest Control

Check out our Farm Progress Photo Album.

Audio, Corn, Farm Progress Show, Farm Shows, Syngenta