Greetings from Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference

Amanda Nolz

I’m joining you today from Frankenmuth, MI, where I’m attending the 2010 Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference as a speaker. This afternoon, I spoke at the Partner’s Program on social media. I provided tips and tricks for sharing the agriculture story through elevator speeches, blogs and social media networks like Facebook and Twitter.

I spoke about the challenges I face on my family’s cattle operation, in trying to make the transition back home. I discussed ideas for interacting with consumers and sharing those challenges to give them a better idea of who we are and where we come from. I offered ideas for making habits to tell the positive story about the food production story with consumers.

Overall, it was a great session, and I really enjoyed working in the Partner’s Program. There is nothing better than great people, educational sessions and free ice cream and chocolate milk!

Media, Social Networking

Joliet Junior College

Chuck Zimmerman

Bill JohnsonJoliet Junior College and specifically the Weitendorf Agricultural Education Center was the location of the Chicago Farmers Farmland Investment Fair. I spoke with one of their faculty, Bill Johnson (pictured left), about the school. Bill is one of the many volunteers who work to put on the Fair.

He says that the College started that state’s first ag program in 1954 so it has the oldest ag program and it’s still the largest. They draw students from all the surrounding states. He says they’ve got 102 acres of farmland on the campus which is operated by the ag department. The Weitendorf Center is located across the highway from Chicago Motor Speedway. He says this is the third year they’ve held the fair in the facility.

You can listen to my interview with Bill below.

Chicago Farmers Farmland Investment Fair Photo Album

Audio, Education, University

New Holland Workmaster Debut

Cindy Zimmerman


2010 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

nfmsNew Holland’s new WORKMASTER™ tractors bear a trusted name, and the same important qualities that made the original WORKMASTER tractors so popular in the 1960s.

The new Workmaster made its debut right out of the box and off the boat here at the National Farm Machinery Show. I talked with Mike Stolitca, New Holland sales manager for Kentucky, about this dependable, basic workhorse. “We are very excited to have this tractor here, first tractor in North America for the Workmaster series,” he told me. “This provides a reliable, efficient tractor at an affordable price.”

Mike says this tractor is great for hobby farms and smaller operators looking for a good chore tractor. Some of the features that allow for ease of operation include an 8×8 shuttle transmission and a comfortable, open operator station.

Listen to my interview with Mike here:

Audio, National Farm Machinery Show, New Holland, Tractor, Uncategorized

Lee Greenwood at National Farm Machinery Show

Cindy Zimmerman

AgWired continuing coverage at the National Farm Machinery Show sponsored by:
New Holland

2010 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

nfmsSyngenta sponsors the Championship Tractor Pull at the National Farm Machinery Show, which kicks off each year to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.” This year it kicked off to Lee Greenwood performing his signature song live at the arena and on Thursday morning he was in the Syngenta booth, signing CDs for fans and helping Syngenta kick off a new campaign called “Weeding Out Hunger.”

“This is a very important event for the tractor pull and for Syngenta, there’s a great cause here and that’s feeding America,” Lee told me in a real quick interview as he was signing autographs. You can here more from Lee on today’s AgriTalk from the NFMS.

nfmsI learned more about the campaign, which is associated with Halex GT herbicide, from Carroll Moseley with Syngenta Crop Protection. “We directly affect and feed the population by controlling weeds in corn, this is a product for glyphosate-tolerant corn,” he said. “What better way to relate it to another direct way to impact people more needy than others than to have this Weeding Out Hunger campaign where we are contributing to feeding America affiliates across the United States.”
Find out more about the campaign at WeedingOutHunger.com.

Listen to back-to-back interviews with Lee and Carroll in the player below and here’s a little video from the Syngenta booth.

Audio, National Farm Machinery Show, New Holland, Syngenta

A Message From NFMS For HSUS

Cindy Zimmerman

nfmsAs I was leaving the first day of the National Farm Machinery Show, the message on this young man’s shirt caught my eye.

“I didn’t climb to the top of the food chain to become a vegetarian.”

Ain’t that the truth?

I am heading in for the second day at the show today and the weather is better so I expect traffic will be a little heavier going in this morning. Thanks to John Deere for coverage of the first day of NFMS – check out the posts from yesterday to learn about some of what they have on display and especially what’s NUE. The rest of the show our coverage this week is sponsored by New Holland. Green and blue go well together!

Check out the photos here on the
2010 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

AgWired coverage of opening day at the National Farm Machinery Show sponsored by:
john-deere

John Deere, National Farm Machinery Show, New Holland

Getting Ready for Planting Season

Cindy Zimmerman


2010 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

nfmsSnow may be on the ground but growers at the National Farm Machinery Show know that planting season is just around the corner, and with the potential for yet another wet spring this year, they are looking at ways to get that job done faster and more efficiently.

John Deere ‘s Ryan Lair was talking with farmers about the 1790 planter on display at the show. “On this machine you can see the two big yellow tanks which we call our CCS, or central commodity system, which allows the customer to have a lot of productivity and a lot of seed being carried on the planter itself.”

That is key when planting windows are tight. “Every year it gets tighter and tighter and the agronomists will tell you that there’s about a seven day window there where you’re gonna get the max out of the crop that you’re planting and anytime that you can carry more seed and control your inputs, that’s where we want to be and where the customer wants to go.”

Listen to Ryan’s interview here:

Audio, John Deere, National Farm Machinery Show

John Deere Makes RowSense

Cindy Zimmerman

nfmsJohn Deere’s AutoTrac™ RowSense™ makes more sense than ever for growers to use automatic guidance in corn, improve harvest efficiency and reduce operator fatigue. That’s because they now offer a universal version that can be used on older models and even other brands of combines and corn heads.

I talked with Aguimar de Souza of John Deere at the National Farm Machinery Show about AutoTrac RowSense and its benefits for growers. We also talked about the adoption of precision technology in his home country of Brazil and other parts of the world. “It’s growing everyday,” he said. “I would compare GPS technology for tractors and combines and sprayers to computer technology many years ago. Now, farmers in South America, North America, Australia, Europe understand that they need to buy these systems to be more productive.”

Listen to or download my interview with Aguimar in the player below and you can watch a video of him talking about AutoTrac RowSense here:

Audio, John Deere, National Farm Machinery Show, Precision Agriculture, Video

Growers Love John Deere 8RT Series Tractors

Cindy Zimmerman

nfmsJohn Deere introduced the 8RT Series tractor just last year and it has quickly become a favorite of both dealers and growers.

Kyle Stewart with John Deere says they debuted the tractor in August so it is new this year to the National Farm Machinery Show. “What we’ve done is completely built from the ground up a brand new 8000 series tractor – the track frame is new, the vehicle frame is new, the whole design is new,” Kyle told me. “We’re getting great response from the farmers. They love the new cab. We’re seeing a lot more track tractors sold than what we saw before in this horsepower range. It’s a real popular product for John Deere.”

Listen to my interview with Kyle in the player below:

2010 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

Audio, Farm Machinery, John Deere, National Farm Machinery Show, Tractor

What’s NUE From John Deere

Cindy Zimmerman

AgWired coverage of opening day at the National Farm Machinery Show is sponsored by:
john-deere

2010 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

nfmsWhat is NUE from John Deere at the 2010 National Farm Machinery Show is Nitrogen Utilization Efficiency.

I talked to Dave Wendt with John Deere, who was demonstrating the new addition to the 2510 high speed nutrient applicators. “This machine is a 23 row model, set up on 30 inch spacing to not only side dress, but to run in fall or spring pre-plant.”

The machine folds up into a nice 18 foot package for on-road transport, but the really cool thing that Dave was demonstrating was how it hooks up to the PitStop Pro tendering system to help customers quickly and efficiently change anhydrous ammonia tanks without leaving the cab of the tractor.

“Today, to hook and unhook anhydrous tanks manually might take 10-12 minutes,” Dave said. “With the PitStop System, we’re looking at about a minute and a half to two minutes.” The system is controlled through the same GS2 display in the cab that runs the AutoTrac or rate controller.

Listen to or download my interview with Dave in the player below and watch a demo video here:

Audio, Farm Machinery, John Deere, National Farm Machinery Show, Video

Time For A Fuel Change

Chuck Zimmerman

If you’ve ever attended a National Biodiesel Conference then you know Emily Richards and Jason Brock. These music stars are passionate about their belief in renewable fuels and have been regular performers at the conference.

This morning they took the stage during the closing general session and played some songs from a new album they’ve put together to promote biodiesel. I’ll have more on that in a later post. I’ve got full coverage in progress on the Biodiesel Conference Blog and on Domestic Fuel.

In the meantime, I thought you’d enjoy a video of them being joined on stage by National Biodiesel Board Chairman, Ed Hegland and CEO, Joe Jobe. They did a variation of a song you’ll recognize and so give a listen to “Time For A Fuel Change.”

You can also listen to the song here.

Biofuels, Video