AG CONNECT Expo Wrapup

Chuck Zimmerman

The inaugural AG CONNECT Expo is “in the books.” It was a good one too. I believe the show was very professionally done and everything went smooth. Attendees and exhibitors have echoed those comments when I’ve spoken with them.

To wrap things up I spoke to Charlie O’Brien, VP Ag Services for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. He says that they’re extremely pleased with the show. Attendance neared a total of 8,000. He says that the show committees have all met and the common theme among them was “quality, quality, quality.” Meaning that they have all been impressed with the quality of the booths, the sessions and the people on hand to answer questions. Looking forward they would like to broaden the scope of the show with more exhibitors. They’ve already got a large portion of next year’s floor space sold. He also heard from exhibitors that they were grateful for the integration of educational sessions into the show.

Next year’s show will be in Atlanta, GA January 7-10 so make your plans now. You can watch my interview with Charlie or listen to and download it below:

AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album

AEM, Audio

Canadian Ag Minister Talks COOL During AG CONNECT

Joanna Schroeder

GerryRitzCanadian Minister of Agriculture, Gerry Ritz, was the featured speaker today during the State Agriculture and Rural Leaders’ Annual Legislative Agriculture Chairs Summit Luncheon during the AG CONNECT Expo. While Ritz focused on ag initiatives in Canada and the agricultural and trade relationships and programs between Canada and the U.S., the issue that got many fired up in the audience was that of Country of Origin Labeling or COOL.

Ritz noted that COOL is the biggest trade hurdle between Canada and it’s a very controversial issue. There is a contingency of people who want to have all food labeled so that they know what country their food is coming from. The reasons for this knowledge are threefold: to support American-made products, protectionism and ensure food safety. On the other side of the fence are the people who don’t see the need for labeling, in part because it adds costs to food products.LuncheonCrowd

The Canadian government opposes Country of Origin Label and when asked what the chances were that this policy would be enacted, Ritz simply said, “50-50.”

One last topic of discussion was farm raised fish, a movement gaining momentum in Canada and supported by the government. In closing Ritz noted, “I know there are some controversial stories around about enviromental this and so on like that. Most of them are not based on sound science they’re based on some sort of wild speculation under the moon with a tinfoil hat.”

AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album.

International

Case IH Floor Show at AG CONNECT Expo

Chuck Zimmerman

Case IHThe exhibitors at AG CONNECT Expo really invested a lot in their presentations and none more than Case IH in my opinion. I watched a couple of their floor shows and thought you might enjoy a look at one of them.

Centered in the exhibit is a whole command console to control lights and sound. It really is well done and attendees loved it. I heard that the whole thing was put together in 90 days. If that’s so, then whoever did it should get some real kudos.

AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album

Agribusiness, Case IH, Equipment, Video

Catching Up With Trimble at AG CONNECT Expo

Joanna Schroeder

When Trimble launches a new product it’s available worldwide and next week Trimble will be launching several new products. I tried to coerce Guillermo Perez-Iturbe, the regional manager for Latin America, to give me a scoop during the AG CONNECT Expo, but he held out. Good for Trimble – bad for me.

Today, the company has a suite of precision ag products available including GPS guidance systems. One of their new products is the EZ-Steer assisted steering system which takes over the steering while the farmer focuses on steering, spraying and more. There are three versions of the EZ-Steer system including the AgGPS FmX Integrated Display. This display has 3D land leveling capabilities and the technologies in the pipeline will add even more options to the current products.

In the past year, Trimble has acquired several key companies in order to, “close the cycle of the ag precision space,” said Iturbe.  The company has a worldwide presence and Iturbe noted that other countries are in very different places in their adoption of precision ag technologies.

The Trimble Team: Sergio Lucas, Vilson Hansen, Guillermo Perez-Iturbe and Rafeal Bull

The Trimble Team: Sergio Lucas, Vilson Hansen, Guillermo Perez-Iturbe and Rafeal Bull

For example, Argentina started precision farming 14 years ago with lightbars and has yet to adopt the higher levels of precision technology while Mexico has adopted the most advanced precision ag technology available but doesn’t use something as simple as a lightbar.

Today, Trimble is working with its customers to better help them identify the best precision ag technologies for their farms, and this is important to the company because they understand that no farmers’ operations are the same.

Listen to my AgWired exclusive interview with Guillermo Perez-Iturbe here.

Audio, Precision Agriculture

AgDay TV Taping Draws Large Crowd at Ag CONNECT Expo

Joanna Schroeder

LiveTapingofAgDayTVIf you’re in agriculture, then you know Al Pell, the host of AgDay TV. Al and his crew were on hand during the AG CONNECT Expo and while there, taped a show. In the background – a standing room only crowd.AgDayTVCrowd2

Chip Flory, with Pro Farmer was the featured guest. The topic of discussion was to be crop reports but with the market movement this past week, this became the topic du jour.

AgDay TV airs on RFD TV each weekday at 8:00 am EST / 7:00 am CT. You can also check out the show on Dish network channel 231 and Direct TV channel 345.

Uncategorized

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

    AG CONNECT Expo Attendees Learn How to Harvest the Wind

    Joanna Schroeder

    Wind energy for rural America was an engaging topic during the educational session, “Harvesting the Wind,” held yesterday during the AG CONNECT Expo. The session provided an outlook for the wind energy industry in the states as well as offered information on projects suited for rural areas, such as farmers leasing out their land to companies to site windmills. The session was sponsored by 25×25, a nonprofit organization that believes our country can get 25 percent of our energy through renewable sources by 2025.

    HarvestingTheWindPresenters included Lisa Daniels, Executive Director and founder of Windustry, a nonprofit organization that specializes in developing community wind projects. These types of projects are owned by local members of the community and private investors, not wind turbines owned by a utility company. In addition, Steve Wegman, Director of South Dakota Wind Energy Association discussed how his organization is helping South Dakota increase its wind energy through rural projects, and Susan Sloan, Manager, Strategic Partnerships for the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), provided an industry overview that included current and proposed policy and programs to increase wind energy throughout the U.S.

    A few interesting statistics that were shared during the session: the wind energy industry added an estimated 35,000 jobs last year; wind emits no CO2 and uses no water; and today the wind energy industry has the capacity to generate 31,000 megawatts of wind per year. One megawatt generates enough electricity to power 225-300 homes per year.

    In 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy authored a report called “20% Wind Energy by 2030,” that is currently being used by the Obama administration for guidance on growing the wind industry. A copy of the report is available at www.20percentwind.org, and don’t forget to visit our AG CONNECT Flickr album.

    Energy

    Networking Night at AG CONNECT Expo

    Chuck Zimmerman

    AG CONNECT ExpoHere’s the happy smiley greeting crew for AG CONNECT Expo Networking Night at Universal Studios. Attendees had the opportunity to go to the Islands of Adventure, Marvel Super Hero Island, which we had all to ourselves.

    Who’s your favorite Marvel super hero? Mine has always been The Mighty Thor although Spiderman comes in a close second. I took photos of the characters on display which are in the updated photo album.

    Thor Marvel UniversalWell, we’re in the home stretch. It’s the final day of AG CONNECT Expo and the temperatures are supposed to be in the 70’s today! I’ll be back out on the show floor today along with Joanna Schroeder conducting interviews and hope to have a wrap up interview from show staff by the end of the day.

    AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album

    Uncategorized

    Social AGCO

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Social AGCOA year ago would you have thought you’d see this proudly displayed in an agribusiness booth?

    I didn’t think so. But AGCO is connecting socially with their customers as we found out at Tuesday evening’s Tweetup. So how about your company? Are you getting your social network in order?

    If you follow the AG CONNECT Expo Twitter hashtag which is #agconnect then you’ll see how social things are. Check it out.

    AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album

    Uncategorized

    Raven Slingshot Introduced at AG CONNECT Expo

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Raven Ryan MolitorPrecision agriculture technology is on display all over the AG CONNECT Expo show floor. I don’t think I’ve seen quite so many exhibits outside of a show dedicated to this growing technology application. Raven Industries is one of the companies exhibiting something new here at the show.

    I spoke with Marketing Manager, Ryan Molitor, this afternoon about Slingshot. He says Slingshot represents a breakthrough in connectivity, online services and hardware. It can deliver advanced RTK correction signal technology and high speed internet using wireless in the cab.

    You can listen to my interview with Ryan below:

    AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album

    Agribusiness, Audio, Precision Agriculture, Technology