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

BASF And ASA Programs

Chuck Zimmerman

ASA TentAt the American Soybean Association tent, BASF is providing lunch for members of state soybean associations as well as ASA. Here’s a couple of the folks from BASF, serving their customers.

I visited the tent and spoke with ASA VP, Rob Joslin. He’s national membership chairman and really enjoys the relationship that has developed with BASF. For example, he likes a program called Secure Optimum Yield. This program is in its second year. He says, “It’s an opportunity for members of the ASA to try some Headline and take it to yield, send those results in and BASF will pick up the cost of an ASA membership.”

BASF ASA ScholarshipAnother program with BASF that Rob likes is the Scholarship program. ASA is funding a $5,000 scholarship for the children and grandchildren of ASA members.

If you’re out here at the Farm Progress Show, then you can stop by the ASA or BASF tents to learn more or just visit the ASA website.

The American Soybean Association (ASA) is pleased to announce the 2008-09 Secure Optimal Yield (SOY) Scholarship. The SOY Scholarship is a one-time $5,000 award to an eligible High School senior who plans to declare agriculture as a degree area of study at the University of their choice. The award is
to be used directly for tuition, fees, and/or books, not to exceed $2,500 per semester, and not to exceed tuition amount with other fee dedicated aid. The scholarship is managed by ASA and sponsored by BASF Corporation.

You can listen to my interview with Rob here: fp-08-joslin.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

Ag Groups, Audio, BASF, Farm Progress Show, New Holland, Soybean

Monsanto Talks Sustainability

Laura McNamara

Michael Doane, Monsanto's Sustainability Team LeadThe recent surge in profitability within the agriculture sector is giving farmers and ag companies a bit of room to breath. But, Monsanto says, just a bit. Michael Doane, Monsanto’s Sustainability Team Lead says that with profitability comes responsibility: a responsibility for the agricultural climate of the future. There are big questions, Michael says, that begged to be asked, and, hopefully, answered. How do we meet the growing demand? How do farmers fit into the growing needs of the recent future? What will the world look like for our children? Will it be a world, Michael asked, that has a lot of pressure on its resource base?

“We’re going to have to produce more food on the same acres between now and 2050 then we’ve produced in the last 10,000 years combined,” Michael said. “That’s pretty substantial. That’s going to get us to twice the level of annual food production in 2050 versus today.”

Michael says responding to such demands is a responsibility that must be shared throughout the ag sector. But, he says, Monsanto is eagerly doing it’s part to help.

“This conversation about sustainability kind of hit us right between the eyes,” Michael said. “We went out and started talking to a lot of people about agriculture; and what doing more with less would look like; what would be important there.”

Ultimately, Michael says, Monsanto’s goal is to make farmers more productive and, consequently, more financially successful.

“Our goal is to make every farmer we serve better off the next year than they were the previous year,” Michael said.

And, Michael says, that goal is meant to benefit farmers all over the world.

“In developing countries we think we also need to do that,” Michael said. “So, we’ve committed to helping 5 million resource-poor farmers, who are simply trying to feed their families, do that.”

But, as much as Monsanto recognizes its role in securing the future of farming and the future of feeding the world, the Michael says finding long-term, sustainable solutions will be a team effort.

“It’s going to be the ‘we’ collectively that does this,” Michael said.

You can download and listen to Michael Doane’s entire speech at the 2008 Farm Progress Show in Boone, IA here: fp-08-doane.mp3

You can also download the speech 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

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

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Farm Progress Show Rain

Chuck Zimmerman

Farm Progress Show RainDay 2 of the Farm Progress Show is getting off to a wet start.

This is rain dripping off the media tent. Thank goodness our sponsor, New Holland, has a nice place for us to work in.

Yesterday was dry and dusty and today’s the opposite. That’s kind of typical for the show though. Laura and I are at the AgWired Media Central working on some photos and interviews from late yesterday. We’ll have them posted soon. Meanwhile, here’s a short video clip of what it’s like right now.

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

Electric Shock “Therapy” for Soil

Laura McNamara

All it takes to find out what kind of soils and elements are found in a plot of land is just a bit of electric charge. Veris Technologies has developed a method for determining soil ratios using electricity:

“What we’re looking at here is using AC voltage or very low voltage injecting it into the soil with two electrodes,” Paul Drummond said. “Then, we’re actually measuring the voltage with another pair and the conductivity is actually driven by the sand, silt, clay content of the soil. So the heavy clays are highly conductive, silts are in the mid-range and sands are very poor conductors.”

Paul says the electric-shocking instrument will take readings every second and will read the conductivity of each particular location. This, he says, offers the farmer information on the relative sand, silt or clay differential or texture within the particular area of the field. Paul says farmers can then use this information to “generate a yield potential map and ultimately an input map based on those soil differential zones.”

Paul says soil conductivity is an old technology that dates back to mining exploration in the 1920s, but Veris is the first to use the technology for agricultural applications. Paul adds that the agricultural climate today is ripe for the development and adaption of such precision ag technologies:

“In the last few months we’ve seen inputs just rise dramatically, and if you’re going to stay competitive in this environment you’re really going to have to pinpoint your inputs and really minimize your expense on areas that aren’t very productive,” Paul said. “It’s really the time for precision ag to really become a reality.”

I interviewed Paul about Veris’ electric soil mapping technology. You can listen to my interview with Paul here:
paul-drummond-preag-08.mp3

Agribusiness, Audio, Equipment, Farming, Technology

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • New Holland’s BB9000 Series large square balers produce consistent, dense, solid bales that stack well and withstand repeated handling. Overall bale density has been increased by up to five percent with product enhancements. Additional improvements include a new, narrow hitch for greater maneuverability, and oil-immersed gearboxes and automatic greasing for reduced service requirements and improved durability.
  • Syngenta Seeds, Inc. and John Deere Risk Protection, Inc. announced that the USDA’s Federal Crop Insurance Corporation has approved Syngenta Agrisure and other approved biotech corn seed brands for a broadened crop insurance endorsement that provides insurance premium discounts to farmers. This extends the program for discounts of certain federally-reinsured crop insurance policies and simplified terms to growers who use multiple biotech corn suppliers.
  • Elanco announced that Lilly has signed an agreement to acquire the worldwide rights to the dairy cow supplement, Posilac (sometribove), as well as the product’s supporting operations, from Monsanto Company.
  • Vermeer Ag announces the launch of three new products: The Vermeer FINAL CUT Feed Chopper (designed to work exclusively on Vermeer BP8000 Bale Processors), 605 and 604 Super M Series Balers and TM1200 mower.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Cavena Nuda Oats yields well for New Bothwell Producer

    Harry Siemens

    Cavena Nuda Oats

    Cavena Nuda Oats

    Harry Siemens – Uli Gehrer is one of a small group of producers who has invested time and money in diversifying into raising a new naked oats variety called Cavena Nuda on his farm near New Bothwell. While these growers had enough seed to plant nearly 1,500 acres, Gehrer has 460 acres on his farm while the total amount is closer to 1,100 that the growers will harvest in 2008.

    Uli called from the combine after harvesting the first 160 acres to report a yield of 3,600 pounds to the acre, considerably more than the 2,500 pounds to the acre he harvested in 2007. When converting that to what regular oats would yield, he said it was more like 105 bushels an acre in normal oats. However, since the hulls, representing about 25 percent of the weight, come off at the combine and pass through the machine back into the soil, the yield is closer to 140 bushels an acre.Read More

    Uncategorized

    Farm Progress Show Video

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Just so you didn’t think Laura and I were only shooting still photos and doing audio interviews (besides AgWired Live TV) I’ve got a couple of video clips to share with you. I’m trying out a new Flip Video camera at this show. It’s pretty simple in terms of shooting and uploading your video to YouTube.

    First up, I’ve got a short clip from this morning’s Monsanto press conference:

    After that I visited the American Soybean Association/BASF lunch tent. Basically, BASF (our sponsor) bought lunch for any member of ASA. I also ran into soybean growing superstar, Kip Cullers:

    Then, I wandered by the Trimble demonstration area and they were running a New Holland (our sponsor) tractor:

    Finally, Laura and I left the show site around 7pm:

    Check out our Farm Progress Show 2008 Photo Album.

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

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