Precision Ag News 4/22

Carrie Muehling

  • Registration is now open for Tech Hub LIVE in Indianapolis on July 20-21, 2022.
  • The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) Hall of Fame recognizes the pioneers
    whose inventions, ideas, leadership and courage have contributed to the industry and our community’s quality of life. Submit your nomination at AEM.org/hall-of-fame. Nominations are open until June 17, 2022.
  • Two more leading agronomic professionals have joined Meristem Crop Performance, one of the fastest-growing crop input suppliers in America. Izaak Rathke becomes Meristem’s director of large farm business accounts and Jim Sitar becomes sales representative for the upper western Corn Belt.
  • Burger King and Cargill announce a partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), the largest private conservation grant provider in the U.S., to support cattle ranchers committed to addressing climate change through regenerative agriculture practices in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. This five-year initiative with up to $5 million in funding, brings together two major beef brands dedicated to emissions reduction, reinforcing the important role beef and cattle play in helping the Great Plains thrive. The funding is expected to generate 1:1 matching contributions from NFWF, creating a total on-the-ground impact of up to $10 million.
  • The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its first-ever comprehensive workplan to address the decades-old challenge of protecting endangered species from pesticides. The plan establishes four overall strategies and dozens of actions to adopt those protections while providing farmers, public health authorities, and others with access to pesticides.
  • Ceres Imaging, the precision agriculture data analytics company that combines AI with remote sensing technologies to increase farm profits, has announced that its Field Disease Risk product will be made available to growers as part of Evergreen’s Agtrinsic platform.
  • Nutrien Ag Solutions is partnering with corn, cotton and wheat growers to generate sustainable outcomes through a new Sustainable Nitrogen Outcomes (SNO) program. Growers will receive compensation for credits generated when using a suite of products that can increase productivity and reduce nitrogen application by at least five percent overall. The deadline for enrollment is now May 31.
  • FieldReveal, LLC announced an operating agreement with AgWorks, LLC which deepens their already-strong partnership that was announced in early 2020. This operating agreement harnesses robust leadership experience from both companies and delivers to FieldReveal, a strengthened and unified management team that is highly focused on the ever-evolving needs of ag retail companies across the country.
AgWired Precision, Precision Ag Bytes, Precision Agriculture

CUTC is Back in Person

Cindy Zimmerman

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) will once again host its biennial Corn Utilization and Technology Conference (CUTC) in person, June 6-8 in Chesterfield, Missouri.

The conference answers the question of how can the industry produce more quality corn, build new markets and continue to create opportunities for agriculture. While the ag industry can often be the target of unfavorable attention, CUTC brings an optimistic and forward-thinking focus on corn production quality and new technologies to build greater corn demand. Productivity, adaption and resilience are key pillars at the forefront of 2022’s CUTC agenda.

Dr. Todd Werpy, senior vice president and chief science officer for ADM Company, will be the keynote speaker at the 2022 CUTC and will address growth opportunities for sustainable materials from corn.

Post Update:

CUTC 2022 has been canceled in-person.

Thank you for registering for the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference. There is a great community of science and business leaders that NCGA is committed to supporting but unfortunately, we had to make the decision to cancel the in-person event due to continuing travel complications in the wake of COVID. We will be refunding all registration fees and hotel arrangements will be automatically cancelled. We please ask you to stay tuned as we work on alternative plans to disseminate the quality information in the confirmed sessions.

Please watch your email for information on virtual CUTC sessions.

Corn, CUTC, NCGA

Animal Ag News 4/18

Carrie Muehling

  • House Agriculture Committee Chairman David Scott released a statement announcing the participation of the CEOs of Cargill, Tyson Foods, JBS, and National Beef Packing for the House Agriculture Committee’s upcoming hearing on cattle markets.
  • USPOULTRY and the USPOULTRY Foundation are accepting nominations for the Dr. Charles Beard Research Excellence Award through July 1. To submit a nomination, please send a letter to Dr. Denise Heard (dheard@uspoultry.org), vice president of research, that includes the nominee’s name, a brief description of the nominee’s research accomplishments and the impact of the research.
  • The USA Poultry & Egg Export Council (USAPEEC) and U.S. Poultry & Egg Association (USPOULTRY) recently held individual ribbon-cutting ceremonies for their newly renovated office space in Tucker, Georgia. The space is owned by “The Coop Group, LLC,” a partnership of USAPEEC and USPOULTRY.
  • Erik Weihenmayer has joined the Alltech ONE Conference keynote speaker lineup. Weihenmayer is one of the most sought-after speakers in the world. Despite losing his vision at age 14, he is an accomplished climber, paraglider, skier and kayaker who never allows blindness to interfere with his passion for pursuing an exhilarating and fulfilling life.
  • Farm Journal Foundation is partnering with the Zoetis Foundation to launch a new program to surface solutions for relieving student debt in the veterinary industry, with the long-term goal of addressing shortages of veterinarians to work with farmers in rural areas. The new Veterinary Debt Solutions Program will convene leaders from across the livestock, academic, nonprofit, and veterinary sectors to address barriers that veterinarians face in building long-term careers in rural areas.
  • McLanahan Corporation announced Lori Lulich has joined its agricultural team as regional sales manager, serving the Midwest and Western United States.
  • The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Cattlemen’s Webinar Series continues on April 21 at 7:00 CDT. Register here to learn more about tools available to manage risk associated with drought.
AgWired Animal, Animal Agriculture, Animal Bites

Industry Ag News 4/15

Carrie Muehling

  • Alltech took steps to advance its leadership in sustainability through the company’s first global renewable energy project, a photovoltaic solar energy system, located in its production plant in Serdán, Mexico. The plant also presented its new source of compressed natural gas, which will help to considerably mitigate its environmental impact.
  • Potatoes USA elected new leadership during its Annual Meeting on March 9, 2022. The newly elected Chairman and Executive Committee will lead the Board through 2022-2023. Jason Davenport of Bakersfield, California was elected as Chairman of the Board.
  • Farmers are invited to submit nominations for the 2023 Farm Bureau Farm Dog of the Year contest, supported by Purina. This is the fifth year of the contest, which celebrates farm dogs and the many ways they support farmers and ranchers in producing nutritious food for families and their pets across America. The grand prize winner – Farm Bureau Farm Dog of the Year – will win a year’s worth of Purina dog food and $5,000 in prize money. Farm Dog of the Year nominations, which include written responses to questions, at least one still photo and a video clip (optional), must be received by July 1, 2022, for consideration.
  • The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture announced Lauren Zajicek has been hired as Coordinator, Communications. In this role, Zajicek will assist in facilitating strategic public engagement including social media and website management, graphic design, event branding and promotion and newsletter development.
  • Ag Media Summit will feature Scott Mason as the opening keynote speaker at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, July 18. Scott Mason is known as the Tar Heel Traveler. His Monday-Thursday series on WRAL-TV, the NBC affiliate in Raleigh, takes viewers along the back roads of North Carolina where he meets memorable characters, finds out-of-the-way places, and unearths fascinating historical footnotes. The series has become so popular it has led to Tar Heel Traveler half-hour specials, which Mason produces each quarter.
  • A committee of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) grower leaders has selected the finalist for the 2022 NCGA Scholarship Programs. As a result, eleven students will be awarded scholarships for the fall 2022 semester. NCGA is proud to support these programs in partnership with BASF Corporation. Learn more about the program winners below and read their full bios here.
  • EasyKnock announced the relaunch of FarmlandFinder, the first online sale-leaseback platform for farmland, with a renewed focus on helping America’s farmers achieve their goals. The new FarmlandFinder will exclusively offer sale-leasebacks to farmers and can help them achieve goals such as strengthening balance sheets, funding operations, eliminating debt, and buying more land.
  • The National Pork Producers Council has hired Chase Adams as manager of congressional relations in its Washington, DC, public policy office. He joins Jack Frye on the organization’s lobbying team.
Zimfo Bytes

Agri-Pulse Newsmakers – Rep. Feenstra, on E15 and WOTUS

Chuck Zimmerman

The newest episode of Agri-Pulse Newsmakers is now live and features Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, on E15 news and WOTUS discussions.

The Biden administration made news this week with the announced emergency action to allow E15 to be sold this summer. The move satisfies a major request of the biofuels industry but also leaves the sector wondering what comes next. Iowa Republican Randy Feenstra joins Newsmakers to discuss that as well as ag input issues and efforts to define a Water of the U.S.

There’s also a panel discussion on the future of ethanol policy and agriculture’s current relationship with the Environmental Protection Agency.

Newsmakers is also available as a podcast and/or you can sign up to get free access to Newsmakers.


Agri-Pulse

DDGS Mistaken for Bird Poop on Biden’s Lapel

Cindy Zimmerman

The ag story of this week may be what hit President Joe Biden on the lapel during his appearance at an Iowa ethanol plant Tuesday.

Video of the moment went viral since it appeared to be bird droppings, but instead of being by-product of a bird, turns out it was a co-product of an ethanol plant, the high protein animal feed known as distillers dried grain with solubles or DDGS.

Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper was an eyewitness in the distillers grains barn with President Biden and he confirmed it was definitely DDGS responsible for spotting the POTUS lapel. “We did see something falling from the ceiling and it landed right there on his lapel and I can confirm it was not a bird dropping,” said Cooper, who took this photo at the event which shows the mound of DDGS off to Biden’s left side and the spot on his jacket. It came just as President Biden started to talk about products made in America and the amount of corn used at the Menlo, Iowa POET plant.

The Des Moines Register was first to report the actual culprit which has given some media outlets a chance to learn about distillers grains for the first time. Even Snopes has issued a fact check on the claim now and White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield tweeted, “If you guys knew your way around a corn silo at all, you’d know it was corn.”

Cooper says it provides a great opportunity for the ethanol industry to explain how each bushel of corn used in ethanol production generates about 17.4 pounds of DDGS to be used as feed for both dairy and beef cattle.

RFA CEO Geoff Cooper confirms DDGS on Biden lapel (3:30)

Audio, Corn, Ethanol, Feed

ZimmCast 690 – From the 2022 Agri-Marketing Conference

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCastHello and welcome to the ZimmCast.

The topic of this episode is the 2022 Agri-Marketing Conference which took place last week. Besides exhibiting in the Connection Point I was also taking photos for NAMA, over 500 of them, which you can find in our online album. Just click on the Flickr icon on AgWired.com or AgNewsWire.com to view and share.

During the conference I recorded remarks from our industry award winners as well as interviewing the new president of NAMA, Deron Johnson, Curious Plot. The Golden ZimmComm Microphone was active in our Connection Point booth and I conducted interviews with a number of attendees and other exhibitors. You can find them all on the virtual newsroom on AgNewsWire.com.

I’m sharing a number of these remarks and interviews with you in this week’s program. Congrats to Kelly Loganbill for winning the Apple HomePod mini in our Connection Point booth drawing. And thank you to Julie Lux, Rural Minds, for winning the distribution of a news release using our AgNewsWire service in the NAMA Foundation Silent Auction

If you would be interested in sponsoring the podcast please let me know. Just email chuck@zimmcomm.biz or message me on social media.

I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for listening.

Listen to the ZimmCast here:
ZimmCast 690 - 2022 Agri-Marketing Conference (32:02)

Want to sponsor the ZimmCast? Just let me know and we can talk through ideas for your company. I’m AgriBlogger on Twitter or just email me at chuck@zimmcomm.biz.

Subscribe to the ZimmCast in:

Advertising, Agencies, Agribusiness, Audio, Marketing, Media, NAMA, ZimmCast

Precision Ag News 4/13

Carrie Muehling

  • Koch Agronomic Services is the latest company to join SVG Ventures THRIVE Venture & Innovation Platform to focus on identifying and engaging with scalable solutions across the rapidly transforming crop nutrition ecosystem.
  • A new tool available for the 2022 season, the KestrelMet™ 6000 AG Weather Station, provides farmers with a simple, cost-effective way to manage risk, create management timelines and achieve better irrigation efficiency.
  • Clariant has launched DropForward™: a focused approach to providing precision application with adjuvants and co-formulants. Clariant offers customers Synergen DRT: the first solution to come out of its DropForward concept. Synergen DRT is the drift control agent and biological activator specifically for drones.
  • A cornerstone of any effective weed control program is finding and treating bothersome weeds before they become established and spread. According to weed scientist Erin Hill, Ph.D., at Michigan State University, commercially available Android and iOS smartphone apps may put you on the right path. Hill tasked 16 teams of students learning plant identification skills in her weed science labs at Michigan State with comparing apps for accuracy. The results, now published on the Michigan State website, show the apps correctly identified anywhere from 11 to 67 percent of the photographed plants – or 25 to 80 percent when partially correct answers are included.
  • Syngenta wants to help growers plan their 2022 National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) Yield Contest entries by unlocking their fields’ full potential through the 2022 Find More Bushels program.
  • The 2022 National Sorghum Producers Yield Contest is now open and includes new deadlines for entry and harvest forms submission deadlines. The new entry deadline for the 2022 Sorghum Yield Contest is October 15. Additionally, the 10-day waiting period between submission of the entry form and the harvest report is eliminated. Harvest reports will be made available to contest entrants beginning October 16 and must be received at the NSP office or postmarked no later than November 25.
  • Two scientists have earned a place in the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Science Hall of Fame for their pioneering and impactful research in human nutritional health and biobased product development. Lindsay H. Allen and Terry A. Isbell will be inducted in a virtual ceremony rather than a physical event due to ongoing COVID-19 safety precautions.
  • Godsey Precision Ag began offering Pioneer Seed along with precise soil sampling and data management. The growing business then added variable-rate planting, fertilizer and irrigation, imagery, and on-farm research. Now the next step-change in service is a dealership agreement with Meristem Crop Performance, a fast-growing, high quality crop input provider.
  • The AgCareers.com Talent Solutions Team is partnering with AgLaunch to amplify career connections in the Ag Technology sector. Together, they are laying the foundation for a collaboration focused on growing and promoting careers in the agtech field.
  • Ag tractor and combine unit sales had their first decline since July 2021, according to the latest data from the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. U.S. total farm tractor sales fell 21.1 percent for the month of March compared to 2021, while U.S. self-propelled combine sales for the month dropped 10.2 percent to 343 units sold.
  • World FIRA, the leading event in Ag Robotics, will launch FIRA USA in Fresno, Calif. Oct. 18-20, 2022 to provide autonomous systems and robots to California and North America growers. Jointly organized by the Global Organization For Agricultural Robotics (GOFAR), the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, Western Growers Association and the Fresno-Merced Future of Food (F3) Initiative, FIRA USA 2022 will bring together specialty crop growers, robot manufacturers, industrials, academics, technologists, startups and investors for three days of problem-solving, decision making and planning.
AgWired Precision, Precision Ag Bytes, Precision Agriculture

C is for Care Tells Kids About Cattle

Cindy Zimmerman

Zoetis and Ag Storytellers have collaborated on a new children’s book that celebrates the special bond between humans and cattle.

C is for Care is written by Amanda Radke and illustrated by Michelle Weber and features the special care for beef and dairy animals in an A-to-Z format.

“We know the relationship between humans and cattle is two-way; our customers care and provide for animals so the animals can provide for us,” said Becky Lambert, Vice President, U.S. Cattle Marketing for Zoetis. “There’s tremendous value in helping educate the next generation of consumers on the responsible care that beef and dairy producers provide to their animals every day.”

For Radke and Weber, this book fits in with the type of story they are passionate to share. “As cattle producers ourselves, we want to share the positive story of animal production agriculture,” Radke said. “This project helps us tell the story of cattle care with young children and their families, so future generations can appreciate the love and dedication that U.S. beef and dairy producers put into raising healthy animals.”

Buy it here and share it with your non-ag friends!

AgWired Animal, Animal Agriculture, Animal Health