I saw one of these bad boys at the POET Project LIBERTY field day recently although I didn’t get to speak with anyone at Vermeer about it. It is the Vermeer CCX770 Cob Harvester, a wagon-style corn cob collection system which enables farmers to harvest corn and cobs simultaneously.
The Vermeer CCX770 Cob Harvester is designed to tow immediately behind select corn harvesting combines to collect and unload the cobs.
“This new patented Vermeer cob harvesting machine is a solution for supplying corn cobs for cellulosic ethanol production,” says Vermeer Product Manager Jay Van Roekel. “It’s easy to attach to the combine, is self-contained and cost-effective. This innovative product can help farms by diversifying their harvest 
in collecting bio-mass materials for resale or reuse as well as supporting our country’s efforts to produce home grown energy.”
The cob harvester concept was originally developed by an innovative Midwest farmer who saw a need and acted on it, “much like the founder of Vermeer Corporation, Mr. Gary Vermeer, did 60 years ago in 1948.” According to Van Roekel, test harvesting will be conducted throughout 2008 to evaluate performance and efficiency. Vermeer will then communicate product launch plan and availability for the 2009 harvest season.
This may have been the last time I will have the chance to interview the current Secretary of Agriculture – I think this is about the 10th secretary I have been able to report on during my career in ag communications!
Chuck is out hunting with no internet access, I am on location covering the Cellulosic Ethanol Summit and two groups decide to have dueling telephone press conferences. What’s a blogger to do?
I know posting has been light but sometimes the agriblogger has to take a few days off. I’ll be back on the grid by Wednesday evening and ZimmComm will have some exciting news by the end of the week.
The NAFB Foundation auction to support scholarships has been an annual event since back in the days when I was on the Foundation board – long time ago!
Last night’s auction included the usual top shelf items, such as a NASCAR Kansas City race package donated by Pioneer, the New Holland Boomer Pink Pedal tractor, NAFB collectible tractors, and several framed prints, including a limited edition Terry Redlin donated by Ron Claussen that was the evening’s top selling item.
We are very pleased to report that our good friend Lindsay Hill of AdVance, ABN and Buckeye Ag Radio Network has been elected as vice president of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting. She is pictured here with her very proud husband and partner Andy Vance shortly after the election took place. 
I think we need a couple days to get all of the Trade Talking done that we’d like to do! Cindy and I did a lot of interviews today and we’ll be using them in the coming weeks.