2025 Tech Hub Live

Secretary Schafer Visits Farm Progress Show

Chuck Zimmerman

Secretary of Agriculture Ed SchaferOur Secretary of Agriculture, Ed Schafer, showed up here at the Farm Progress Show and started out at the ADM tent with Orion Samuelson and Max Armstrong.

After a brief opening statement he opened things up for some Q&A.

You can hear Orion ask the first question here: fp-08-schafer-orion.mp3

You can also download the audio file with this link.

Max got to go second with the following question:

Check out our Farm Progress Show 2008 Photo Album.

AgWired coverage of the 2008 Farm Progress Show
is sponsored by: BASF and New Holland

Audio, BASF, Farm Progress Show, New Holland, Video

Live From Day 3 of Farm Progress Show

Chuck Zimmerman

AgWired Live TV is now done for the day. We’ve been live from the media tent throughout a lot of the Farm Progress Show so I hope you’ve been able to see an application of what we can do with it. I hope it gives you some ideas.

Laura and I are getting ready to pack up and head home but our coverage will continue over the next several days as we work up more interviews and pictures.


ZimmBite – Farm Progress Show Goodbye on 12seconds.tv

Check out our Farm Progress Show 2008 Photo Album.

AgWired coverage of the 2008 Farm Progress Show
is sponsored by: BASF and New Holland

BASF, Farm Progress Show, New Holland

Muddy Start to Day 3 of Farm Progress Show

Chuck Zimmerman

Muddy EntranceWelcome to day 3 of the Farm Progress Show.

We had a lot of rain overnight so it’s pretty muddy out here but the sun is out and I’m sure it will dry up and be a beautiful day in Boone, IA.

Laura and I are working up some content from yesterday and have a to-do list to get started on. You can be sure that we’ll have posts for you over the coming days. It’s not all going to get posted today.

It’s our understanding that U.S. Sec. of Ag, Schafer, is supposed to do a press conference at 4pm but I don’t think there will be any press here. Maybe Ken Root, WHO? Who knows?

Check out our Farm Progress Show 2008 Photo Album.

AgWired coverage of the 2008 Farm Progress Show
is sponsored by: BASF and New Holland

BASF, Farm Progress Show, New Holland

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • The U.S. Poultry & Egg Association recently presented a check in the amount of $250,000 to the United Egg Producers. The funds will help educate California consumers about modern egg production systems prior to a November ballot initiative that bans most modern layer housing and egg production systems in the state. The California initiative, officially known as the Treatment of Farm Animals Act, would effectively ban both commercial cage and cage-free production.
  • An estimated 100,000 acres of cotton were treated with Blizzard harvest aid in 2007. Yet again this year, cotton producers have a highly cost-effective defoliation option for use on their crops. Marketed by Chemtura Corporation, cotton producers can expect white-out conditions, heavy leaf fall and open bolls consistently following an application of Blizzard harvest aid.
  • Quarry Integrated Communications announces the addition of four communications professionals to its U.S.-based team: Brad Bremer, Kristi Drum, Neila Hodgins and Heather Murphy. Quarry’s clients span the animal health, crop protection, financial services, life sciences and technology sectors and include BASF, FedEx, Nortel, Novartis, and Research in Motion.
  • Mycogen Seeds has added four new sunflower hybrids to its portfolio for 2009, including one with Clearfield resistance. The new Mycogen brand hybrids are proven to perform, providing more oil and higher premiums.
    Zimfo Bytes

    The Art and Science of Soil Conservation

    Laura McNamara

    Michael Doane, Monsanto's Sustainability Team LeadThe air we breath is often taken for granted. And, Peggy James, Natural Resources Conservation Service liaison to The Nature Conservancy says, so too are non-profits.

    “Non-profits are like air,” Peggy said. “They’re all around us but we hardly notice it. They are an integral part of a healthy, artistic, viably economic, productive society working towards sustainability.”

    Sustainability, Peggy says, is crucial to healthy living and, well, feeding and eating, worldwide. She echoed the sentiments of Hugh Hammond Bennett, the man the TNC considers “the original crusader for farmland conservation:”

    “For everything we do – all we share, even whatever we amount to as a great people – begins and rests on a sustained productivity of our agricultural lands.”

    Peggy adds, that non-profits, are the key to preserving that standard of sustainability. She says the 1.4 million non-profit organizations in the U.S. are growing at a faster rate than the American economy.

    “That shows you the vital niche and need that these organizations fill,” Peggy said.Read More

    Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Audio, Environment, Farm Shows, Farming, International

    USDA Awards $35 Million For Renewable Energy

    Chuck Zimmerman

    USDA Undersecretary for Rural Development, Tom DorrUSDA announced today that 639 individuals and businesses in 43 states and the Virgin Islands have been selected to receive $35 million in grants and loan guarantees for renewable energy systems or to improve energy efficiency in farm and business operations. On hand to make the announcement here at the Farm Progress Show was our USDA Undersecretary for Rural Development, Tom Dorr. I had hoped to have webcast the press conference but we had internet “issues.”

    That’s why I try to always have an audio recorder going too. So you can listen to Secretary Dorr, including the Q&A afterward. The whole file is about 9 minutes long.

    You can listen to Sec. Dorr’s press conference here: fp-08-dorr.mp3

    You can also download the audio with this link.

    Check out our Farm Progress Show 2008 Photo Album.

    AgWired coverage of the 2008 Farm Progress Show
    is sponsored by: BASF and New Holland

    Audio, BASF, Farm Progress Show, New Holland, USDA

    AgWired Live TV From Farm Progress Show

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Hello live from Day 2 of the Farm Progress Show in Boone, IA.

    Well, we were going to broadcast the Tom Dorr press conference at 2pm but thanks to the worst internet access we’ve ever had at a Farm Progress Show (that I can remember anyway) access for AgWired Live TV died a little before the press conference. I taped it though and will post it as soon as I can get it edited.

    BTW. The internet access here is being handled by a company called VenuWorks. I would definitely not recommend them. We’ve been having lots of problems since the show started with our access. One of our farm broadcasters just left to go back to her hotel because she can’t even upload audio files. The company hasn’t been very responsive. I’ve called 2x (trying to get some guy named Andy) in the last couple hours and left messages but am getting no answer. If I was New Holland, I wouldn’t be paying for this service.

    Post Update: Andy did call me back. He says that since this is a new site we should understand that there are infrastructure challenges and they hope to learn from this show and make it better next time.

    Check out our Farm Progress Show 2008 Photo Album.


    ZimmBite – Farm Progress Show on 12seconds.tv

    AgWired coverage of the 2008 Farm Progress Show
    is sponsored by: BASF and New Holland

    BASF, Farm Progress Show, New Holland

    Some BASF Headliners

    Chuck Zimmerman

    ASA TentOur world record holder for soybean yield, Kip Cullers, is on site at the Farm Progress Show.

    Here’s he is (center) with his wife, Michelle, and ASA President John Hoffman. They’re in the ASA hospitality/lunch tent. I asked Kip what he thought about BASF serving lunch to ASA members and he said, “Well it doesn’t surprise me a bit. I work with them every day and I know what kind of people they are. This is just typical of something they’d be willing to do.” He says that’s why he uses Headline fungicide, “because they stand behind their products.”

    He just recently held a field day at his farm which Cindy attended. He says it went, “really, really well,” and hopes people were able to take something away from it that might be a new idea they can try.

    I also spoke with John Hoffman. John is a 5th generation family farmer a little north of the Farm Progress Show site. He wanted to thank BASF for their long standing support of ASA. He says the crop in his area has had a challenging season. It was a couple weeks late, they’ve had a lack of heat units and double the normal rainfall and now it’s turned dry (well, until this morning). He’s just trying to manage for yield at this point. He’s sprayed for aphids and says he applied Headline to all his soybeans and corn. As he puts it, “There still potential out there.”

    You can listen to my interview with Kip here: fp-08-cullers.mp3

    You can also download the interview with this link.

    You can listen to my interview with John here: fp-08-hoffman.mp3

    You can also download the interview with this link.

    AgWired coverage of the 2008 Farm Progress Show
    is sponsored by: BASF and New Holland

    Audio, BASF, Farm Progress Show, New Holland