Southern Blogging From Midwest Corn Growers

Chuck Zimmerman

Cindy noticed that our friend, David Buchholz, David and Associates, is doing a little South American blogging at Midwest Corn Growers, 2009 Study Tour to South America.

In this space we allow corn growers, media and others who are interested to learn what we’ve learned and experience a bit of what we experienced on a two-week study tour to Brazil and Argentina. The tour – from January 10 to 25, 2008 – covers a lot of ground, so this blog will, too.

Brazil and Argentina are important agriculture producers who complement and compete with producers in the United States. These countries are also major meat producers and play an important role in biofuels. By better understanding their operations, policies and future plans we will be better able to compete – and also work together on important issues.

You’ll find lots of pictures and some very in depth reporting of their activities. I think Dave is into it!

Post Update – from Cindy: I was actually alerted to the blog by Ken Colombini with the National Corn Growers Association who did a post about it on Corn Commentary yesterday.

Ag Groups, Corn

Give The Customers Their Turn

Chuck Zimmerman

Drive Green in HoustonAfter about 230 pictures here in Houston, I’m done. Of course that doesn’t count about 2 hours of video and audio that includes about a dozen interviews.

This afternoon it was the customer’s turn to see the show in the arena and then get to ride and drive these new utility tractors and Gators. The sun was shining and I think I probably should have put some lotion on. Tomorrow it’s time to head on home to ZimmComm World Headquarters.

During the day I had a chance to do some Tweeting, including posting to my 12Seconds.tv account from my iPhone:


[iPhone] Drive Green Utility Tractor Show on 12seconds.tv

The show photo album is up to date.

John Deere

Novus Preparing for All Star Poultry Expo

Cindy Zimmerman

Novus at IPEYou may have noticed the baseball-themed banner ad here on AgWired for Novus International and the International Poultry Expo, coming up next week in Atlanta. We are very pleased to have Novus sponsor our coverage of the IPE this year and Chuck recently got to chat with Novus director of product management Wendell Knehans about their plans for the event.

“We’re bringing an “all-star” theme to try and bring some of St. Louis to the show,” Wendell says. That will include giving away all-star tickets and having a special guest on hand at the booth – Baseball Hall of Famer Lou Brock.

The Novus all-star product line-up for poultry producers includes Advent, DHA Gold, Mintrex and Alimet – nutritional solutions that Wendell says “help producers be more economically efficient, driving toward better production costs in this tough time for the poultry industry.”

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Wendell here: slac-novus.mp3

I will be the official IPE blogger and will heading to Atlanta next Mondy to begin coverage on Tuesday with a technical presentation given by Novus’ Dr. Tara York on SANTOQUIN, Selenium and Vitamin E. Stay tuned!

Audio, Novus International, Poultry, Poultry Expo

Headline Voted Best No-Till Product of 2008

Cindy Zimmerman

No Till FarmerThe readers of No-Till Farmer magazine voted on the products that performed best in their no-till operations in 2008 – and the “No-Till Product of the Year” winner is – Headline fungicide from BASF.

No-till products in 11 specific categories were also selected as the best of their field for 2008. Each of the products and their manufacturers were honored during an awards ceremony last week at the 17th annual National No-Tillage Conference in Indianapolis. Other winners were:

No-Till Equipment: Early Riser Planters, Case IH
Planter/Drill Attachments: Martin Row Cleaners, Martin Industries
Strip-Till Equipment: Blu-Jet StripTill System, Thurston Manufacturing
Spray Equipment: AGCO Spra-Coupe 7000 Series, AGCO
Residue Management: The Spreader, The Spreader Inc.
Fertility: Agrotain, Agrotain International
Insect Protection: YieldGard VT Triple, Monsanto
Fungicides: Headline, BASF
Seed Treatment: Cruiser, Syngenta Seed Care
Precision Tools: RTK AutoSteer, AutoFarm
Weed Control: Roundup PowerMax, Monsanto

BASF, Syngenta

BASF and Monsanto Working Together on Weed Control

Cindy Zimmerman

BASF MonsantoBASF and Monsanto Company have joined forces to accelerate the development of next-generation of dicamba-based weed control chemistry products. The partnership will be working to develop crops that are resistant to both Roundup® agricultural herbicides and dicamba to deliver significant on-farm benefits to growers.

According to Monsanto Global Chemistry lead Sean Gardner, “Combining a second type of herbicide resistance with Roundup Ready® technology would offer growers multiple tools for weed control through the use of Roundup®, dicamba, or combinations of both herbicides.”

Dicamba is a benzoic acid herbicide and BASF is currently the largest provider of dicamba and dicamba-based solutions.

BASF, Biotech

Online In Houston

Chuck Zimmerman

Drive Green in HoustonGood morning from Texas. AT&T seems to have fixed their 3G problem and now I can “get out.”

This morning local area John Deere dealers got a presentation on the new line of utility tractors in a classroom style setting before heading out to ride and drive them before the general public gets here this afternoon.

I’ve already update the show photo album and am getting ready to shoot some video and interviews.

John Deere

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service plans to open a new Agriculture Quarantine and Inspection and Port Technology Methods Development Laboratory in South Miami, Fla., later this year. Scientists at this new facility will work to ensure that agriculture imports are free of invasive species.
  • Archer Daniels Midland Company and Alianca Da Terra have launched Doing it Right, a program to encourage Brazilian soy growers to adopt sustainable farming practices.
  • The FDA announced it will make final the guidance describing a regulatory framework for governing genetically engineered animals. This system will ensure the products made available through this science will go through a rigorous and transparent review process before being approved for the marketplace.
  • Accelerated Genetics is pleased to announce a new product line called Essential Solutions. This product line will feature various products for organic fed cattle. The first product that is being released is a Direct Fed Microbial.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Change Coming to USDA

    Cindy Zimmerman

    VilsackJust a few hours after Barack Obama took the oath of President of the United States, the U.S. Senate confirmed seven of his cabinet appointees, including Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture.

    But, don’t look for an update on the USDA website just yet. Unlike the new whitehouse.gov website, which went live at 12:01 eastern yesterday, the USDA website has yet to be updated with the new secretary’s info. As of this morning, the Secretary pages on usda.gov are just blank. Could be because USDA offices were closed yesterday for the inauguration. First time I can recall there being four days in a row without an updated USDA newsline.

    Everybody in agriculture seems happy about Secretary Vilsack – with the exception of mainly activists who are opposed to biotechnology. In case you don’t know his background, Vilsack was governor of Iowa from 1999-2007, during which time he chaired the Governors Ethanol Coalition, Governors Biotechnology Partnership, and the National Governors Association’s Natural Resources Committee, which handles agriculture and energy policies. He also owns a 600 acre farm in Iowa.

    Now we will await the secretary’s new appointments for deputy and the various agencies within USDA.

    USDA

    A Green Afternoon in Houston

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Drive Green in HoustonIt’s great to be out on location for the first time in 2009. The weather in Houston is beautiful so I’m sure John Deere is loving it. Tomorrow we’ll have a full day of activities at the Houston Farm and Ranch Club. It’s Drive Green time again.

    This afternoon was all about setting up for the show tomorrow. I took some photos like this one and started the event interviews which you’ll find on the Drive Green Utility Tractor Show blog. Unfortunately I couldn’t get internet access to work there. Believe me, I tried. Even the AT&T signal for my air card is the “wrong one.” Don’t ask. It would take too long to explain. But I can still use my iPhone there so keep an eye on my Twitter feed tomorrow.

    John Deere

    Associating With StollerUSA

    Chuck Zimmerman

    ZimmCast-204 - Associating With StollerUSAI got to associate with Jerry Stoller, CEO and President of Stoller Group, today at his 16th annual U. S. Ag Associates Conference in Houston, TX. I am on location with the John Deere Drive Green Utility Tractor Show but had time to stop by and speak to Jerry during their lunch break today. Patricia Lawson, Hondo Group, was kind enough to snap a picture of me interviewing Jerry with my iPhone.

    Chuck Interviews Jerry StollerJerry says he’s been conducting this Conference for 16 years now after 7 people got together for the first one.

    University professors, researchers, growers, crop consultants and Stoller Group representatives will join in an effort to learn from one another. With individuals from many different backgrounds contributing, results from various experiments and observations from the past year are presented at this technical meeting. Highlights of the conference include discussions on product development and strategies to increase crop yields. Some of the work presented is theoretical; however, most are practical studies that have been obtained through university research and field trials.

    There are representatives attending this year’s Conference from 40 countries. Maybe it will need to be re-named with the word “International” after this! Jerry is also a blog fan. He says, “I think there’s tremendous potential using the internet, these blog sites, in order to teach.” You have to listen to this interview. He’s got some great anecdotes like an analogy of a crop to a woman. It’s great. You can hear why he makes a good teacher.

    You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: Listen To ZimmCastZimmCast 203 (12 min MP3)

    Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:Interview with Jerry Stoller - ZimmCast 204

    The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes

    Agribusiness, Audio, ZimmCast