AgWired

There is certainly a lot of new product news showing up all the sudden! Take this announcement from Garst. There’s a lot of new varieties available. Growers are going to have their hands full deciding what to buy for next year. I know this is the time of year they’re making those decisions but as I’ve also learned the last couple weeks, it’s also a really bad time to bother them. It’s harvest time!

Garst Seed Company announces the introduction of 18 new Garst® brand soybean varieties for the 2006 growing season. This outstanding lineup includes: 15 new varieties with the Roundup Ready1 trait — seven of which also offer resistance to soybean cyst nematodes (SCN) and one variety that offers the Roundup Ready trait and the new CystX2 technology. Three new conventional varieties also are available. A total of 77 Garst brand soybean varieties offering top yields, exceptional agronomics and proven performance are available to growers for the 2006 season. Garst will also offer 43 NK brand soybeans in 2006.

I’ll be honest with you and say that what most attracted me to this story is the large rack on the the stag in the logo. I want to see one of those opening day this deer season! In fact, 2 years ago I at least saw a deer that looked like The Hartford stag. So I know he’s out there.

Now the well-know insurance and financial services company (195 years and going strong) is getting into agrifinance.

Hartford Investment Management Company, the investment management subsidiary of The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., announced it has added an agricultural finance team located in Fresno, California. David Dunlap joined Hartford Investment Management in late July to lead the Fresno-based team of agricultural finance professionals with more than 90 years of combined experience in agricultural lending. “The AgriFinance Group, a leader in this specialty lending arena, capitalizes on its significant experience and industry knowledge to provide more complicated loan structures to finance permanent planting developments,” said Hartford Investment Management President David Znamierowski. The four-member team of agricultural finance professionals includes Dunlap, along with Mark Peterson, Ann Bridges and Karen Micheli.

I’m not real sure how this announcement is a departure from what the company has already been doing. I remember when CaseIH came under the New Holland umbrella and CNH was announced. We joked about seeing purple tractors (red + blue) but instead the brands have remained separate and marketed separately. They’ve even retained separate staffs to do this. So I’m not clear from today’s announcement how this is actually different but I guess we’ll see. I guess that when you see words like “underperforming” and new leadership it at least means that the HR department has been busy.

CNH Global today announced it will reorganize its operations into 4 distinct global brand structures: CaseIH and New Holland agriculture and Case and New Holland construction equipment.

The previous functions of global presidents responsible for the agricultural and construction equipment business are eliminated. Roland Sunden, Ag president since January 2004, has left the company.

Good news for cereal eaters and growers. BASF just received registration on it’s Charter Fungicide.

Cereal Seed Treatment Controls Key Seed and Soil-Borne Diseases
With the registration of Charter™ fungicide, cereal growers in the United States have access to a new, leading-edge seed treatment technology that promotes healthier, higher yielding wheat and barley. Charter provides control of key diseases including fusarium in wheat and true loose smut in barley.