Wyffels’ Corn Hybrids Performing Well in the Fields

Joanna Schroeder

We’re getting closer and closer to the corn harvest in the Midwest and Bob Jackson, a researcher with Wyffels Hybrids, has been able to get into the fields and get some early looks. Harvest data coming out of Central and Southern Illinois reports that things are doing very well. “We’re off to a great start and I think we’re going to have a very solid year on performance,” Jackson told me last week during the Farm Progress Show.

Rain has been a concern in Iowa and Jackson said it there has been a lot of excess rain falls. “A common rain fall seems to be five inches this year. No one gets an inch of rain anymore,” said Jackson.

But as a researcher this actually excites him because he is able to learn how his company’s corn hybrids will perform. He noted that with all the rain, a lot of corn had a problem with denitrification and there has been a lot of oxygen depletion in the soil as well. This has caused a number of problems to develop this season.

“We haven’t really seen these hot conditions for the past couple of years. So it’s good to put our hybrids through the strains that happen during a normal year,” explained Jackson. “Sometimes it’s hot, sometimes it’s cool. Sometimes it’s wet and dry. So as a researcher, I like to see what happens and find a hybrid that works the best in all conditions.”

Although Wyffels didn’t release any new hybrids during the Farm Progress Show this year, they have a few new products coming down the pipeline.

You can learn more about Wyffels Hybrids by listening to my interview with Bob Jackson. Wyffels' Corn Hybrid's Performing Well

Check out our Farm Progress Photo Album.

Audio, Corn, Farm Progress Show, Farm Shows

Iowa Based Kum & Go Supports Iowa Corn Farmers

Joanna Schroeder

Iowa based Kum & Go is a huge supporter of Iowa farmers. They sell ethanol and they sell products in their store made from corn. In Iowa, 31 of their stations sell E85 and in total 62 of their stations sell E85. In addition, every Kum & Go station offers consumers the choice to choose E10. The company is so passionate about offering consumers ethanol blends at the pump, that they have become a long-term partner with the Iowa Corn Growers Association and the Iowa Corn Promotion Board.

To help better educate consumers about the role Iowa corn farmers play in their everyday lives, the Iowa Corn Growers are in the midst of the Iowa Corn Fed Game Day promotion. As part of this initiative, this past Tuesday, the organizations jointly hosted three pump rallies around Iowa City, Iowa. I spoke with Matt Chase to learn more.

Not only is the promotion is designed to educate consumers about ethanol, but also to educate them about how many everyday products use corn – more than 4,000. But consumers don’t have to worry about having to make a choice between food, products or fuel. Iowa corn farmers, along with corn farmers around the country, are growing enough corn to meet all of our needs. In fact, this year is expected to be another record harvest using less land than in previous years.

You can learn more about food, fuel and products at www.iacornfed.com where you can register to win $5,000 in free food and $2,500 in free fuel. You can also learn more about the uses of corn by visiting the Iowa Corn Growers Association and the Iowa Corn Promotion Board during Saturday’s Iowa State versus Iowa football game in Iowa City. They will have a booth with fun activities set up in the Krause Family Plaza from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm on Saturday, September 11, 2010.

Check out the photos from the pump rally here.

Corn, Ethanol, Events, Food, Video

Pork and Beef Panels On GIPSA

Chuck Zimmerman

Since the livestock industry is so important to our country as well as just about every other sector of agriculture you can’t get enough on a subject that has major implications for its future. That would be the proposed rule by the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA). You can follow back through our posts on this topic using the GIPSA Category which is in the left side drop down menu.

I still have some audio to share with you from the recent USDA/DOJ public workshop in Ft. Collins, CO. In this post you can listen to and download audio from the two panels (beef and pork) conducted the evening before by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the National Pork Producers Council. I streamed it live at the time but also recorded it for you.

The pork panel included:

Sam Carney, President NPPC, Iowa pork producer
Mark Legan, Indiana pork farmer
Brent Sandidge, Manager of Ham Hill Farms, Missouri
Steve Meyer, President, Paragon Economics

You can listen to pork panel here: GIPSA Pork Panel

The beef panel included:

James Herring, President/CEO, Friona Industries, Texas
Bill Rishel, Rishel Angus and currently President, Nebraska Cattlemen’s Association
Jerry Bohn, General Manager, Pratt Feeders, Kansas
Allie Devine, Vice President/General Counsel, Kansas Livestock Association
Dr. Stephen Koontz, Associate Professor, Colorado State University

You can listen to beef panel here: GIPSA Beef Panel

Ag Groups, Audio, Beef, GIPSA, NCBA, NPPC, Pork

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