Taking the SOY Challenge

Cindy Zimmerman

Each year, soybean growers around the country take the American Soybean Association (ASA) and BASF up on their challenge to reduce weed competition, increase plant health and protect yields – but only three are chosen.

BASF SOY Winners JonasWe already met first place winners David and Sue Roehm in an earlier post. Today we meet Dave and Mary Jonas of Pinnconning, Michigan, one of two runners up in the 2009 Secure Optimal Yield (SOY) Challenge, which won them a trip to Commodity Classic and $2000 in cash.

Dave says the SOY Challenge worked out well for them with a two and a half bushel increase in yield. “They had a certain program they wanted you to follow just to see the difference,” Dave said. Test acres received an application of a BASF residual herbicide, such as Prowl® H20, Scepter® or Extreme® herbicides, and a treatment of Headline® fungicide for disease control and Plant Health benefits. Control acres were treated with a single pass of glyphosate in-crop only – no fungicide or residual herbicide.

The goal is not so much to see how much of a yield bump they get with the program, but how taking part in the ASA/BASF SOY Challenge has helps them to be more successful soybean producers. Contestants must submit a testimonial in words or video to explain how the challenge worked for them. Dave says it worked well enough that they plan to use it on more acres this year.

Listen to an interview with Dave and Mary in the player below.

Commodity Classic Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2010 Commodity Classic
is sponsored by: BASF and New Holland

ASA, Audio, BASF, Commodity Classic

Growers Give Stoller a “Green” Thumb of Approval

Joanna Schroeder

There was a lot to see and hear about at Commodity Classic but maybe the best testimonials for a product are the growers themselves. I spent a little time with two growers who gave several Stoller USA products their stamp of approval. Why? Because they have seen significant increase to their yields.

Ken Miller, both a grower and ag retailer who lives in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, said that he has been selling Stoller USA products for 12 years and has been using them for 10 years. I asked him when he became a believer and he said two years for him to believe in the product. Miller uses Bio-Forge, Sugar Mover Plus and X-TRA power. He is routinely seeing 12-14 bushel per acre increases in his corn yields, 6-7 bushels per acre increases in his soybean yield and 5-7 bushel per acre increases in his wheat yields. One of the benefits he noted was that the Bio-Forge helped the plant to make a “massive root system” that enabled it to take up the nutrients from the soil.

Donny Carpenter, a grower from Dimmitt, TX first began using Bio-Forge on his wheat. Last year, due to increased commodity prices for wheat, he increased his acreage and used Bio-Forge for the first time as a seed treatment. He noted that early on he couldn’t tell the difference between his Bio-Forge treated and untreated acres, but when the crop began to boot, this changed.

“We had a crop that stood better, didn’t try to fall because there wasn’t any lodging and it out yielded the untreated area by 12-15 bushels per acre.”

Although Carpenter plans to reduce his wheat crop this season (commodity prices have dropped again for wheat) he will be using the Bio-Forge on his corn and cotton this year and plans on experimenting with various types of applications.

I asked them both what they recommend for other growers and Carpenter encouraged other growers “to give it a shot.” Miller said, “Use Stoller products because they are proven.”

You can download (mp3 file) or listen to a Ken’s interview here: Miller2.Stoller.CC10.mp3

You can download (mp3 file) or listen to Donny’s interview here: Carpenter2.Stoller.CC10.mp3

Commodity Classic Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2010 Commodity Classic
is sponsored by: BASF and New Holland

Audio, Commodity Classic, Corn, Soybean, Wheat

New Communications Manager For NutriDense

Chuck Zimmerman

NutriDense has a new marketing manager as announced by BASF Plant Science. She’s Heather Goode.

In this position, she will support the NutriDense sales and marketing team through the development of marketing communication plans and tools that align with NutriDense business strategies and objectives.

“Heather has worked on many agricultural accounts in an agency setting and is well-suited to lead our NutriDense marketing communications efforts,” said Fran Castle, BASF North American group communications manager. “We are excited to have her on board, and we are confident that she will be a strong addition to our BASF Plant Science company and NutriDense.”

Goode has eight years experience in agricultural communications. Prior to joining BASF Plant Science, she was a client service advisor at Quarry Integrated Communications Inc. in Durham, N.C., where she worked on the swine business for Novartis Animal Health. Goode began her career on the crop chemical side, working on the Syngenta Crop Protection horticulture business at Gibbs & Soell, Inc. in Raleigh, N.C.

Agribusiness, BASF, Dairy

Farmer Cooperatives Can Tell Story at Workshops

Cindy Zimmerman

Workshops on competition in agriculture, like the one held last week in Iowa, can allow farmer-owned co-ops to tell their story.

ncfcAccording to the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC), Friday’s joint workshop between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) set the stage for farmer-owned co-ops to show how they promote a more competitive agricultural sector.

“Family farmers across America have built farmer cooperatives that promote competition, bolster farm income and the rural economy, and help to bring transparency to the marketplace,” said NCFC President Chuck Conner. “While farmer cooperatives were touched on only briefly in this workshop, I hope that DOJ and USDA will use the future workshops to look more closely at how producers can use co-ops as a tool to level the playing field.

“In addition, we continue to be concerned about rhetoric from some that equates being large in size with stifling competition. A large farmer co-op simply has more member-owners—many of whom have medium to small-sized operations—than a smaller cooperative,” Conner continued. “At the same time, the statement made by Christine Varney, the assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division, that ‘with [being] big comes a lot of responsibility’ is true and a standard that, we believe, large farmer co-ops in this country meet.”

Friday’s workshop in Ames focused on competition issues for crop farmers, especially the issues of seed technology and livestock marketing. As the kick off event for the first of several workshops to be held this year, it featured opening comments from Attorney General of the United States Eric Holder and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. Future workshops around the countrywill focus on the poultry, dairy and livestock industry.

Agribusiness, Cooperatives, USDA

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Agriculture economist Glenn Grimes, professor emeritus at the University of Missouri, and former Iowa state senator and “Master Pork Producer” John Soorholtz were inducted into the National Pork Producers Council Hall of Fame for their outstanding contributions to the pork industry.
  • PEER Bearing Company announces a new product offering for tillage equipment, a maintenance free gang disc tillage bearing, TILLXtreme.
  • Sanofi-aventis and Merck & Co., Inc. announced that sanofi-aventis has exercised its option to combine Merial with Intervet/Schering-Plough, Merck’s Animal Health business, to create a global leader in Animal Health.
  • June 4 to 7, 2010, a new tradeshow called Canada’s Outdoor Equine Expo is poised to bring all breeds and disciplines together.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Happy Ag Week

    Chuck Zimmerman

    ZimmCast 252Happy Ag Week to you. Isn’t American agriculture amazing? You bet it is and it’s time to thank our farmers and ranchers for the abundant supply of safe economical food, fiber and fuel they produce for us. And without a lot of thanks in urban areas and increasing pressure from governmental regulations.

    Thank you farmers for all you do!

    In this week’s program you can hear my conversation with Linda Tank, CHS, Inc., who is Chair of the Agriculture Council of America, the coordinating group for National Ag Day which we’ll celebrate officially on March 20.

    In our interview Linda talks about this year’s celebration and we note the new communication channels now available to help get the message out about the importance of agriculture. She points out that there will be a big three part celebration in Washington, DC on Thursday. Wish I could be there. Here are the planned activities:

    Coffee with the Secretary

    The coffee will take place at 8:00 a.m.on March 18 on the Whitten Patio of the USDA.

    Over 3,500 industry leaders have been invited. This includes sponsors, commodity group leaders, Ag Day supporters, members of congress, etc. Also in attendance will be students from AFA, FFA & 4-H who will be making Hill visits after the coffee concludes.

    Seating is limited to 150 people. The Secretary is confirmed and will speake briefly and the coffee will conclude by approximately 8:30 – 8:45 a.m.

    There is no charge for the coffee but attendees do need to register so we have a list for the security staff at the USDA.

    Mix & Mingle Luncheon

    11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m.
    U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, Washington, D.C.

    Complimentary admittance to Luncheon

    This is a standing luncheon and featured speakers include an Outstanding Young Farmer Honoree and national officers from AFA, FFA & 4-H.

    National Ag Day Dinner & Cocktails

    5:30 p.m.
    USDA Whitten Building Patio, Washington, D.C.

    Tickets: $100 per person, or $1,000 for a reserved table of 10
    Hosted by the Agriculture Council of America in recognition of Ag Week.

    The pork for the dinner will be donated by the National Pork Producers Council and will be prepared by Chef Mark Salter from the Inn at Perry Cabin. Seating is limited (we have about 20 seats left).

    INVITED GUEST SPEAKERS:
    Senator Blanche Lincoln, Chair, Senate Ag Committee
    Congressman Collin Peterson, Chair, House Ag Committee

    Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsors, Novus International, and Leica Geosytems for their support.

    You can listen to this week’s ZimmCast below.

    The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our a Subscribe page.

    Ag Day

    Headline News from Commodity Classic

    Cindy Zimmerman

    BASF commodity classicBASF Headline fungicide continues to make headlines, even after years on the market. The more research they do with growers using this product, the better it gets.

    During a press conference at Commodity Classic, BASF Regional Sales Manager Gary Schmitz and Technical market Manager Nick Fassley talked about the more than 6,000 on-farm trials that have been held just in the United States on various crops. While we talk a lot about Headline in the major crops of corn, soybeans and wheat, Nick says the fungicide also provides plant health benefits for crops like peanuts, citrus and even sugarcane. “We’ve done a lot of work on southern crops,” Nick said. “We actually see some added benefits on our plant health label for citrus growers who see their crop mature more at the same time.” Nick says peanut growers have seen an overall increase in quality and yield with Headline, and some new rust species in sugarcane moved Florida to requested a section 18 for the use of Headline in that crop.

    Gary talked about Headline AMP™, which is being offered for the first time this year for corn. “What they’ll get with Headline AMP is all the benefits that they’ve seen with Headline over the years, plus it has an additional active ingredient called metconazole, which is a best in class triazole and has very broad spectrum control of many of the diseases you find in corn,” Gary said. In trials, Headline AMP provided control for tough diseases like Rust and Southern and Northern corn leaf blight and delivered higher yields.

    Download or listen to back to back interviews with Nick and Gary in the player below.

    Commodity Classic Photo Album

    AgWired coverage of the 2010 Commodity Classic
    is sponsored by: BASF and New Holland

    Audio, BASF, Commodity Classic

    Cooking with Soybean Oil at Classic

    Cindy Zimmerman

    pioneer corporate chef at commodity classicThe Pioneer exhibit at Commodity Classic got lots of attention from pancake lovers with the Pioneer corporate chefs demonstrating the versatility of soybean oil for cooking.

    I stopped by and happened to catch Adam Moore flipping flapjacks on the griddle and later was able to do a video interview with Chef Charlie Baggs who showed off the dishes they were making for the trade show crowd, including Chicken Marsala and a sweet Romaine and cranberry salad with feta cheese and a soy oil/mustard vinagrette dressing. Charlie is president and founder of Charlie Baggs, Inc., and he and his Chicago-based staff travel around the country doing this kind of gig for Pioneer and other corporate clients. Seems like a pretty sweet job!

    Commodity Classic Photo Album

    AgWired coverage of the 2010 Commodity Classic
    is sponsored by: BASF and New Holland

    Commodity Classic, Food, Pioneer, Video

    IFAJ Congress 2010 – Ostend, Belgium

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Between Passion and Pressure is the them of this year’s International Federation of Agricultural Journalists Congress. It’s going to be held seaside April 17-21 in Ostend, Belgium at the Thermae Palace hotel. I’ll be attending and get back just in time for the start of the NAMA convention in Kansas City.

    This year’s IFAJ Congress is being hosted by the Belgian Association of Agricultural Journalists (BVLJ-ABJA), a founding member of IFAJ. Here’s a look at the program:

    Saturday April 17th, 2010 – Arrival at the Thermae Palace Hotel (Ostend)

    * Beach animation in the morning and afternoon
    * Executive meeting at 2 P.M.
    * Welcome dinner at 8 P.M

    Sunday April 18th – The city of Ghent

    * Symposium ‘Ghent, cradle of biotech’ (morning)
    * Partner program: ancient city of Ghent (morning)
    * Visit to the Floralies (afternoon)
    * Dinner at ‘t Boerenhof and tribute to the sax” by the new Orleans Night Owls

    Monday April 19th – Tours

    * Tour 1 – West-Flanders : Intensive horticultural production, horticultural auction, arable crops and
    beef production
    * Tour 2 – East-Flanders : Pig production and processing, biogaz and agro-environmental management
    * Tour 3 – Antwerp & Flemish Brabant : Intensive horticultural production & horticultural auction, horticultural research, Belgian endive and dairy
    * Tour 4 – Antwerp :Janssen Animal Health, veal production and dairy
    * Tour 5 – Wallonia : Agricultural machinery (Joskin), artificial insemination, cattle breeding (Belgian White Blue), beef production

    Tuesday April 20th

    * Partner program: city of Bruges: historical centre, Belgian chocolate and lace(morning)
    * Specific technical tours (morning)
    * Partner program: city of Ostend (afternoon)
    * Workshop: ‘Agricultural journalism, between passion & pressure’ (afternoon)
    * General assembly at 4 P.M.
    * Farewell dinner – IFAJ Band

    I’d like to thank in advance AgWired sponsors for coverage of this year’s IFAJ Congress, Novus International and Pioneer Hi-Bred.

    IFAJ