2020 – A Pivotal Year for ZimmComm

Chuck Zimmerman

You could say that 2020 was a pivotal year for ZimmComm. Sorry about using the “P” word. But as crazy as the year was and all the challenges that have been presented, we’ve come through it by virtually using all the tools we have been using for years and some new ones. Sorry about using the “V” word.

Let’s summarize a year of work that we are very grateful for receiving and proud to have completed. Let’s start with what we first called live blogging an event, which morphed into full-blown coverage of events that include photography, broadcast quality audio interviews, videos on YouTube and Facebook all for the use of the media. It also made for good content for our blog – AgWired. So, here’s a list of events from last year that we attended live or virtually. For the virtual events we just “pivoted” to phone/Zoom/Skype/Meetings interviews and screenshots for images.

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Virtual, ZimmComm Announcement

COVID and Cotton Supply Chains

Cindy Zimmerman

The Beltwide Cotton Economic Economics and Marketing Conference included a presentation by Cotton Incorporated Senior Economist Jon Devine on how the COVID pandemic impacted cotton supply chains in 2020.

Devine says the retail segment was hit the hardest, building on already declining sales in stores. “I think the transition was already underway in terms of pushing clothing purchases away from brick-and-mortar outlets towards on-line sales and that has been exacerbated and accelerated.”

Learn more in this interview.
2021 Beltwide Interview with Jon Devine, Cotton Incorporated 8:47

2021 Beltwide Cotton Conferences Virtual Newsroom

Audio, Beltwide Cotton, Cotton

Hurricanes May Have Increased Cotton Seed Coat Fragments

Cindy Zimmerman

The National Cotton Council is pleased that USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service will be collaborating with the Georgia Department of Agriculture to study the significant increase in seed coat fragments being found in 2020 season Southeast cotton classing samples.

The AMS Macon, GA Classing Office has reportedly classed 2.2 million samples, of which approximately 895,000 contained seed coat fragments. In addition to seed coat fragments, a portion of samples also contained whole cotton seed.

“This significant increase in seed coat fragments has caused obvious concern around the region and questions about the possible cause as well as the cotton classing process,” said Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Gary Black. “We are working closely with USDA and industry experts to identify the cause of the issue and potential solutions.

Vice President of Economics and Policy Analysis Jody Campiche noted an unprecedented level of seed coat fragments in the southeast during her cotton market outlook at the Beltwide Cotton Conferences this week. “The latest estimate for the seed coat percentage damage in Alabama is 24 percent of the crop, in Florida it’s 53 percent, and in Georgia it’s 41 percent.”

Dr. Campiche used a chart in her presentation that shows the path of the two late season hurricanes Sally and Zeta, and says they believe the seed coat fragment increase is related to the specific timing of the hurricanes and the stage in the crop cycle when they came through.

2021 Beltwide - Jody Campiche, NCC, seed coat fragments 1:58

2021 Beltwide Cotton Conferences Virtual Newsroom

Audio, Beltwide Cotton, Cotton

Precision Ag News 1/6

Carrie Muehling

  • The Fertilizer Institute announced that it and the Biostimulant Coalition have reached a formal agreement to form a “Biostimulant Council” and work together to advance policy and regulatory frameworks that increase biostimulant market access and encourage research and innovation. The Biostimulant Coalition is a non-profit group of interested parties cooperating to proactively address regulatory and legislative issues involving biological or naturally derived additives, including but not limited to bacterial or microbial inoculants, biochemical materials, amino acids, humic acids, fulvic acid, seaweed extract and other similar materials. The group was formed in 2011.
  • Brake® On! preemergence residual herbicide for the control of annual grass and broadleaf weeds in permanent crops is being launched by SePRO Corporation, long known for its aquatic and horticultural products. The active ingredient in Brake® On! is fluridone, an HRAC Group 12 herbicide, that provides a unique mode-of-action relative to all other residual herbicides in crops including stone fruit, avocado, mandarin, pistachio and pomegranate.
  • A&L Biological Inc., a subsidiary of A&L Canada Laboratories Inc., announced their first two products have now moved into the registration phase of development for the Canadian agricultural market. Cuc-Guard™ has demonstrated efficacy in both small plot and large-scale greenhouse trials for control of Cucumber Green Mottle Mosaic Virus. Similarly, the bio-stimulant ‘AL-BIO 7’ has shown in development trials significant improvement in plant vigour, root development and biomass for plants in a transplant setting.
  • C&H Ag Products of Benton County, Ind., announced their own line of plant growth regulators, adjuvants, water conditioners and drift control agents expressly designed to serve farmers with quality products that will improve return on investment. C&H Ag Products will initially offer NUTRIPRIME™ Plant Growth Regulator and FULLVIEW™ adjuvants, water conditioners and drift control additives. Founders Scott Creek and and Brad Harman also announced a new strategic supply agreement they’ve formed with Meristem Crop Performance Group, LLC.
  • Nature Biotechnology has published research — partially funded by The 2Blades Foundation — on the development of a new wheat variety that shows exceptional resistance to wheat stem rust.
AgWired Precision, Precision Ag Bytes, Precision Agriculture

U.S. Cotton Market Outlook from NCC

Cindy Zimmerman

National Cotton Council Vice President of Economics and Policy Analysis Jody Campiche gave her annual cotton market outlook Tuesday during the Beltwide Cotton Conferences.

Campiche discussed the impacts of COVID-19 on retail demand, which dropped more than 80 percent in April, as well as unharvested acres due to drought in the West, and quality issues from hurricanes in the Southeast. One big bright spot in the 2020 picture was exports. “We’ve seen a lot of sales to China due to the Phase One trade agreement and China’s commitment to buying more U.S. cotton,” said Campiche. “We’re seeing an increase also in Pakistan, which is an important market.”

Beltwide registrants will be able view her whole presentation on-demand. Listen to this interview to hear some of the highlights of Campiche’s talk.
2021 Beltwide Interview with Jody Campiche, NCC 9:48

2021 Beltwide Cotton Conferences Virtual Newsroom

Audio, Beltwide Cotton, Cotton

New Ag Committee Leadership is Cotton Friendly

Cindy Zimmerman

Presumptive new leadership in both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees for this coming Congress includes two lawmakers with cotton roots.

Agricultural economist Bart Fischer, Co-Director of the Agricultural & Food Policy Center at Texas A&M University, gave a policy update Tuesday during the virtual Beltwide Cotton Economic Outlook conference. He says while the political landscape is still somewhat uncertain on the Senate side, Rep. David Scott of Georgia has been elected serve as Chairman on the House committee with Rep. Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (R-PA) to serve as the Ranking Member.

Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas will be replacing retiring Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) and is in line to become either the chairman or ranking member, depending on the outcome of the Georgia Senate runoff elections. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) is expected to retain her position of leadership on the committee.

Fischer discussed a number of policy issues during his presentation, such as COVID relief legislation and looking ahead to the next farm bill. His presentation is available on demand for Beltwide cotton registrants.

Here is an excerpt from Fischer’s presentation.
2021 Beltwide - Bart Fischer, Texas A&M 1:40

2021 Beltwide Cotton Conferences Virtual Newsroom

Audio, Beltwide Cotton, Cotton

EPA Pesticide Program Update for Cotton

Cindy Zimmerman

The 2021 virtual Beltwide Cotton Consultants Conference Tuesday included an update from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Pesticide Programs on crop protection products important to cotton growers.

Michael Goodis, Acting Deputy Director, provided information on a number of pesticides, including dicamba. In this excerpt from his presentation, Goodis explains the process that went into determining the final registration decision for dicamba products from Bayer, BASF and Syngenta last year.

2021 Beltwide - Micahel Goodis, EPA 6:52

2021 Beltwide Cotton Conferences Virtual Newsroom

AgWired Precision, Audio, BASF, Bayer, Beltwide Cotton, Cotton, EPA, Syngenta

Weather Forecasting Tops Cotton Consultants Conference

Cindy Zimmerman

From drought to hurricanes, weather is the single biggest variable for any farming operation, so first up this morning for the 2021 Beltwide Cotton Consultants Conference General Session was atmospheric scientist Eric Snodgrass with Nutrien Ag Solutions.

Snodgrass took participants on an interesting journey from the Dust Bowl of the 1930s to what weather may lie ahead in the next three months. His presentation includes fascinating photos, videos and maps, so if you are a weather nerd, you’ll definitely want to register, if you have not already, and watch the whole 45 minutes.

In this excerpt, Snodgrass talks about 2020 weather events including drought in the west and a dozen hurricanes, and how weather forecasters are making their best predictions for the rest of winter and early spring.
2021 Beltwide - Eric Snodgrass, Nutrien 7:11

Chuck Zimmerman interviews Eric Snodgrass about the weather.
2021 Beltwide Interview with Eric Snodgrass, Nutrien 10:12

2021 Beltwide Cotton Conferences Virtual Newsroom

Audio, Beltwide Cotton, Cotton, Weather

2021 Beltwide Cotton Begins Winter of Virtual Meetings

Cindy Zimmerman

The National Cotton Council (NCC) 2021 Beltwide Cotton Conferences kicks off the winter virtual meeting schedule this week January 5-7.

The virtual platform, utilizing existing on-line meeting technology, will include three days of live-streamed individual reports and panel discussions from the technical sessions along with poster presentations and seminars designed to provide attendees with information they need to help producers make key cotton production/marketing-related decisions.

Lauren Krogman, NCC Manager for Marketing & Processing Technology, says the event translates well to a virtual format and allows for greater access to the presentations and seminars. “The beauty of all of this being virtual is that all of our Zoom sessions will be recorded so we’ll have a very quick turnaround time to make things on demand,” she said.

ZimmComm will be providing a virtual newsroom for the media that will include images and interviews from the various conferences and seminars. Marjory Walker, NCC Vice President for Council Operations, encourages members of the media to contact them with any specific interview requests. “ZimmComm will be conducting interviews and we already have a number of them lined up based on the pretty exciting topics that we have on the agenda,” she added.

Find more information on the Beltwide website and learn more in this preview interview with Lauren and Marjory here.
2021 Beltwide Cotton preview with Lauren Krogman & Marjory Walker, NCC 5:14

The virtual newsroom is already started and content will be added as it is produced.
2021 Beltwide Cotton Conferences Virtual Newsroom

Audio, Beltwide Cotton, Cotton, Events

Animal Ag News 1/4

Carrie Muehling

  • Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative, one of the largest dairy co-ops in the country, urged Congress to help broaden the milk options children have in school. The call for greater flexibility came after the federal government on Tuesday released the 2020 update to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
  • The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association commends the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for finalizing the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which recognizes the role of lean beef in a healthy diet across all life stages and ages.
  • The International Dairy Foods Association, representing all segments in the U.S. dairy industry, applauded the release of the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans affirming that dairy products will maintain their historically important role in federal nutrition recommendations, including recommending most Americans consume three servings of dairy each day.
  • A fun, rewarding and engaging opportunity is available for college students wanting to attend the 2021 Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show in Nashville, Tennessee, Aug. 10-13, 2021. A team of interns – vital to the success of the largest annual meeting in the U.S. beef cattle industry – will gain first-hand experience and be able to interact with leaders of every segment of the cattle and beef industry. Students must be able to work Aug. 8 – 13, 2021, in Nashville. Interested students must complete a Student Internship Application and send college transcripts, two letters of recommendation and a resume. Deadline for applying is April 15, 2021.
  • The digital 2021 International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE) Marketplace will feature more than 70 innovative products and services as part of the Innovation Station/New Product Showcase offered through the IPPE Marketplace. Participation in the IPPE Marketplace is free for attendees. However, personal guides for the IPPE Marketplace must be requested to access the Innovation Station/New Product Showcase and other events and education programs.
AgWired Animal, Animal Agriculture, Animal Bites