2019 Develop with Deere Conference

Chuck Zimmerman

The 2019 Develop with Deere conference is number six and “the largest one yet.” That’s according to Kayla Reynolds, Digital Business Development Manager, John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group. There are 588 people registered.

Kayla says the event is “all about industry collaboration around the digital ag ecosystem.” Attendees from ten countries include John Deere dealers, software development companies as well as John Deere representatives. Since John Deere opened up its APIs to third party application developers quite a few integrations and agreements have been formed. Seventy nine different companies were represented this year.

The program consists of three program tracks that include Technical, Business and Software. For dealers this allows for multiple attendees to sit in educational sessions targeted for their specific job duties. In addition to the sessions, there is an expo area where thirty four different companies set up displays to show and tell their applications and tools.

Listen to my interview with Kayla here: Interview with Kayla Reynolds

2019 Develop With Deere Photo Album

Find more information about the Develop with Deere conference in this virtual ag newsroom.

AgWired Precision, Audio, John Deere, Precision Agriculture

Biofuels Leaders Engage in RFS Discussion

Cindy Zimmerman

The 2019 National Biodiesel Conference concluded Thursday with a panel discussion entitled “To 2022 and Beyond: Renewable Fuels in the Next Decade,” featuring renewable fuel industry leaders discussing the Renewable Fuel Standard and what is on the horizon for 2020.

National Biodiesel Board chief operations officer Doug Whitehead moderated the discussion between NBB CEO Donnell Rehagen and his ethanol organization counterparts Emily Skor, Growth Energy and Geoff Cooper, Renewable Fuels Association.

Listen to their conversation here:
NBB19 RFS panel

2019 National Biodiesel Conference Photo Album

Audio, Biodiesel, Biofuels, Ethanol, National Biodiesel Conference, RFA

Zimfo Bytes 1/25

Carrie Muehling

  • Nineteen innovation pioneers were announced as the 2019 Class of the National Inventors Hall of Fame®. 2019 Inductee David Walt invented Microwell Arrays, which help to improve crop disease resistance.
  • The Corn Refiners Association announced that it has joined Farmers for Free Trade.
  • U.S. Representatives Mike Bost (R-IL) and Al Lawson (D-FL) introduced bipartisan legislation to make more United States Department of Agriculture apprenticeships available to veterans. The Veterans’ Agricultural Apprenticeship Act instructs the USDA to work with state departments of agriculture to identify farmers and ranchers eligible for a direct loan to train apprentice veterans. The loan would, in turn, be paid back to the USDA after the harvest season.
  • Implementing the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 will be the topic for the Farm Foundation® Forum on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019.
  • HELM Agro US, Inc. announces the hiring of Craig Taylor as the company’s new Northern Corn Belt Regional Sales Manager.
  • Brownfield Ag News is pleased to announce Rhiannon Branch has joined the Brownfield team as Anchor/Reporter. She will be based in south central Illinois.
  • Breakfast Beyond the Bell, a new food initiative aimed at supplementing its current federally funded free and reduced breakfast program, is being piloted in the Cahokia School District. Breakfast Beyond the Bell is funded through a $30,000 grant from the Monsanto Fund, a philanthropic arm of Bayer.
  • American Farmland Trust (AFT) published its Women for the Land program report, “Testing the Women Landowner Conservation Learning Circle Model.” To help women landowners, AFT launched Women for the Land.
  • Rhea + Kaiser welcomes Gino Tomaro as Business Development Director.
  • More than 1,200 attendees participated in the 43rd annual Georgia Peanut Farm Show and Conference on Jan. 17, 2019, at the University of Georgia Tifton Campus Conference Center in Tifton, Georgia. The show is sponsored by the Georgia Peanut Commission.
  • Sakata Seed America recently announced a two-year donation of $15,000 each year ($30,000 total) to support Produce Marketing Association’s ‘Center for Growing Talent’ initiative through the company’s charitable giving program, Sakata Gives.
  • A new partnership will bring together TRACKER, part of Bass Pro’s White River Marine Group with Textron, a global leader in innovation and technology.
  • An updated version of the Financial Guidelines for Agriculture has been released by the Farm Financial Standards Council. With a January 2019 issue date, this 272-page edition replaces other versions of the document that have been in circulation since 1991. The most recent prior update was done in 2017.
  • House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member K. Michael Conaway (TX-11) announced the Steering Committee has made its recommendation of the Republican members to serve on the House Agriculture Committee for the 116th Congress. The new House Agriculture Committee members are as follows: Rep. Dusty Johnson (SD-AL), Rep. Jim Baird (IN-4) and Rep. Jim Hagedorn (MN-1).
  • The Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation board of directors has voted to maintain the insurance premium assessment rate on the adjusted insured debt of Farm Credit System banks at a rate of 9 basis points for 2019. FCSIC will continue to assess a 10-basis-point risk surcharge on nonaccrual loans and other-than-temporarily impaired investments.
Zimfo Bytes

Casey’s General Stores Receives Biodiesel Impact Award

Cindy Zimmerman

Casey’s General Stores received this year’s Eye on Biodiesel Impact Award from the National Biodiesel Board. Nathaniel Doddridge, Casey’s Director of Fuels, received the award from NBB Technical Director Scott Fenwick and Chairman Kent Engelbrecht, ADM.

In the past year, Casey’s General Stores has become a leading player in the biodiesel industry, keeping biodiesel in high consumer demand. Casey’s is committed to providing customers the safest, most reliable gasoline and diesel fuel.They believe when customers pull up to the pump, they should get what they paid for. Now, Casey’s is enhancing that promise with new fuel options for consumers. Their stores have taken a pro-biofuels approach, and are promoting a new E15 ethanol program, “Prime the Pump,” in addition to blending more biodiesel.

Casey’s has now converted more than 590 stores to biodiesel and plans to expand the use of biodiesel products to another 300 locations. With this prominence across the country, the biodiesel industry has an opportunity to make strides in public awareness and usage of America’s Advanced Biofuel.

Doddridge also participated in a panel discussion with Geoff Howard, Valley Pacific Petroleum, and Andrew Richard, Sapp Brothers. Listen to that below.

NBB19 Truck Stop Coffee Shop panel

2019 National Biodiesel Conference Photo Album

Audio, Biodiesel, Biofuels, National Biodiesel Conference

Biodiesel Conference Takes Off in San Diego

Cindy Zimmerman

The 2019 National Biodiesel Conference & Expo lifted off Tuesday in San Diego with hundreds of enthusiastic industry attendees ready to engage, innovate, and grow.

Acknowledging 2019 as the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s moon landing, National Biodiesel Board CEO Donnell Rehagen drew comparisons between the tenacity of the space program and U.S. biodiesel producers’ own efforts to get the first commercially available advanced biofuel industry off the ground. He pointed to Coachella-based Imperial Western Products and manager Curtis Wright as one of the many pioneers of the industry, explaining they had to overcome many obstacles in launching their new biodiesel product line at the turn of the century.

“There were times they wanted to give up,” Rehagen said. “There were days when it seemed like nothing at the plant worked correctly.” Today, the plant produces 10.5 million gallons of biodiesel annually and provides a significant amount of the diversified company’s profits, he said.

The biodiesel industry, like the explorers of America’s space program, benefited from clear direction from our political leaders that is necessary in fostering new endeavors.

Federal policies such as the Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires minimum volumes of biodiesel and other renewable fuels be blended into the national fuel supply, and California’s own Low Carbon Fuel Standard have proven to be effective stimulators of U.S. markets. Today, the industry produces nearly three billion gallons annually and supports more than 60,000 jobs across the country. The LCFS is expected to make California alone a billion-gallon market for biodiesel in the coming years.

Listen to Rehagen’s conference address and press availability below:
NBB19 Opening Remarks from National Biodiesel Board CEO Donnell Rehagen

NBB CEO Donnell Rehagen press availability

2019 National Biodiesel Conference Photo Album

Audio, Biodiesel, National Biodiesel Conference

GROWMARK Announces 2019 Scholarship Program

Carrie Muehling

Students looking to study an agriculture-related field as they continue their education might be able to get some financial help from the GROWMARK Foundation.

The GROWMARK Foundation is once again offering a $1,500 scholarship program for students in the United States and Ontario, Canada, pursuing two- or four-year degrees or trade school certification in an agriculture-related field.

“As our business has grown and evolved, we saw a need to provide a scholarship to students throughout the United States and Ontario, in addition to the scholarship programs already established in our core geography,” said Amy Bradford, GROWMARK corporate relations manager and GROWMARK Foundation manager. “GROWMARK and the FS member cooperatives are strong supporters of youth leadership education and this is one more way we can contribute to the future of agriculture.”

Applicants must complete an online application which includes academic information, community service and leadership activities, and essay questions regarding agriculture and cooperatives. Applications will be judged by a panel of agribusiness professionals.

High school seniors or students at any level of higher education may complete the application, which can be found at www.growmark.com/scholarship. Applications are due by midnight on April 12, 2019 and recipients will be notified by July 1, 2019.

GROWMARK is a regional cooperative providing agronomy, energy, facility planning, and logistics products and services, as well as grain marketing and risk management services in more than 40 states and Ontario, Canada. GROWMARK owns the FS trademark, which is used by affiliated member cooperatives. More information is available at www.growmark.com.

The GROWMARK Foundation was formally incorporated in 2005 and supports 501(c)(3) not-for-profit charitable organizations. The Foundation is focused on programs and activities which support: the vitality of the industry of agriculture; agriculture education and consumer understanding of agriculture’s contributions to society and the economy; agricultural leadership development; and education about the benefits of the cooperative way of doing business. The GROWMARK System has been involved in a variety of philanthropic efforts, including youth and young leader education and development and scholarships, for decades.

GROWMARK

Precision Ag Bytes 1/23

Carrie Muehling

  • U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced that all Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices nationwide will soon reopen to provide additional administrative services to farmers and ranchers during the lapse in federal funding.
  • The Soil Health Academy recently announced its line-up of school locations, dates and topics, as well as the availability of scholarships for its 2019 schools. Dates, locations and more information are available at soilhealthacademy.org.
  • Corteva Agriscience™, Agriculture Division of DowDuPont, announced plans for commercial launches of Enlist E3™ soybeans in Brazil, Canada and the United States, beginning in 2019. The Company also announced plans to expand the launch of Qrome® products across the U.S. Corn Belt.
  • Arysta LifeScience recently announced that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved ZOLERA® FX Fungicide for use in wheat production.
  • Farm Dog Technologies, a precision agriculture platform for pest and disease management, is now providing free access to its digital platform for all Extension Agents. For more information, Extension Agents can reach out to Farm Dog at extension@farmdog.ag.
  • The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers recognized three new agricultural innovations pioneered by Case IH, further solidifying Case IH as an industry-leader in agronomic design. The innovations are: Case IH AFS Soil Command™ seedbed sensing technology and agronomic control technology; Precision Disk™ 500 double shoot (DS) air drill with simultaneous single-pass seeding and fertilizing; and Axial-Flow® 250 series combine with new AFS Harvest Command™ combine automation system.
  • A new partnership will bring together TRACKER, part of Bass Pro’s White River Marine Group with Textron, a global leader in innovation and technology.
  • The Soil Health Institute has selected six project scientists and a statistician/database manager to oversee evaluation of soil health indicators at more than 120 long-term agricultural experiment sites across Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
AgWired Precision, Precision Ag Bytes

ZimmCast 606 – Audio & Analytics

Chuck Zimmerman

The end of 2018 made for a busy time with family but also a time to reflect on the year with our AgNewsWire service and AgWired. I get asked all the time about how many people we reach, how many people listen, who are they and more. It’s just not a simple question to answer. But I took a stab at some of the numbers to share with you in this week’s program. I didn’t get into them all. For example, I didn’t go into the videos we publish via Facebook or YouTube and I didn’t go into the photos we publish on Flickr. There are some big number there and those are actually pretty easy to see when you just watch or look at our photo albums.

I’m open to ideas any of you may have on how to best create this kind of statistical information, especially in some kind of reporting mechanism. Right now I’m back to looking everything up separately and aggregating it into a document. Services I have used no longer exist or have made radical changes to their product and pricing. A lot of the web privacy scandals have really created havoc in terms of collecting data.

But besides boring old number I also am including some audio from a couple of recent events where we created virtual ag newsrooms which you can find on AgNewsWire. First up will be Dr. Fred Moore, BASF, Cotton Trait Development Manager. He talks about current and new trait positions during the BASF APT Summit. Then I have an interview with NCGA Chairman, Kevin Skunes, about the Soil Health Partnership and the Summit we attended in St. Louis, MO.

I hope you enjoy this week’s program and thank you for listening.

Listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 606 - ZimmComm Analytics & Audio

Audio, BASF, Corn, NCGA, Soil, Soil Health Partnership, ZimmCast

Regional Breakouts Give Growers More Information

Carrie Muehling

Growers at the 2019 BASF APT (Agronomic Performance Trials) Summit welcomed an opportunity to hear about trial results from across their region, and not just the ones on their individual farms.

BASF Regional Agronomist Dr. Craig Bednarz presented in one of the regional breakout sessions with growers.

“With each of the growers that we work with every year, we share the data with them from their individual farms,” said Bednarz. “So, this is an opportunity for us to share more of the data with them for the entire area. For instance, in my area this past year I worked with 32 growers, so this is an opportunity to share all of that data with all the growers in the southern High Plains region.”

Bednarz said this past year they tested four experimental varieties. FiberMax 2398GLTP was one of the top performing varieties across his area. Another variety that performed well was FiberMax 1621GL. Bednarz said the regional sessions also provide an opportunity to learn ways to be more efficient while doing trials on the farm.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Craig here: Interview with Dr. Craig Bednarz, BASF

2019 BASF APT Summit Photo Album

Audio, BASF, Cotton

Animal Ag Bites 1/21

Carrie Muehling

        • In response to erroneous reports in the news and (mostly) on social media, the National Pork Producers Council is reminding pork producers and consumers that federal meat inspectors are working in meat packing plants despite the government shutdown. NPPC and other livestock groups a year ago urged Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to deem as essential USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) inspectors. Also continuing to operate during the shutdown are USDA Market News Service staff who produce the twice-daily livestock mandatory price reports, which are the sole source of market information on sales to packers of cattle, hogs and lambs and on the subsequent sale of meat products.
        • The National Pork Producers Council said it cannot support a trade agreement between the United States and the European Union that does not include agriculture, after the European Commission issued draft negotiating mandates to EU member states that doesn’t include talks on agriculture.
        • The International Production & Processing Expo will be held Feb. 12–14, at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. IPPE offers attendees access to the latest in protein and feed technology through exhibits and educational programing. TECHTalks are free, 20-minute technical presentations, offered each day at IPPE. See the schedule here.
        • Mike Gauss has been named president for Kent Nutrition Group (KNG) effective January 1, 2019. John Thorpe, previous president of KNG, has been promoted to president and chief operating officer for Kent Corporation, the parent company for KNG, Grain Processing Corporation, Kent Precision Foods Group and Kent Pet Group.
        • More than 50,000 cattle producers have been certified through the Beef Quality Assurance program’s new online learning system since it was first offered in February 2017.
        • Jarrod Blackburn recently joined the Vita Plus Loyal team as a dairy specialist. Based in central Wisconsin, Blackburn will provide customized feed and nutrition strategies as well as management expertise for every area of the dairy farm.
        • Sullivan Higdon & Sink’s work for Twist’d Q Seasonings & Rubs, Merck Animal Health, Bayer and Shatto Milk Company was recognized by the Best of NAMA (National Agri-Marketing Association) Awards, Region II, during an awards banquet in Kansas City.
        • Birko launches its Elite 360® Precision Application Technology at the International Production and Processing Expo in Atlanta.
        • Culver’s restaurant chain is covering the registration fees of the first 250 FFA members and advisors for FFA Day at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Trade Show on Friday, Feb. 1, in New Orleans, Louisiana. The FFA Day sponsorship is made possible through Culver’s Thank You Farmers® Project.
        • Cheese, dairy, milk and yogurt processing have long been an integral part of the PROCESS EXPO trade show and the 2019 event, taking place October 8-11, 2019 in Chicago’s McCormick Place.
        • Chad Zuleger has joined the Dairy Business Association’s policy team. Zuleger has worked in Wisconsin legislative offices, for private companies and with a trade association during 22 years of government affairs work.
        • Vytelle announced a partnership with global livestock reproductive services innovator Sexing Technologies® (ST) for the use of ST’s proprietary reverse semen sorting technology.
        • The top 10 teams of the Food Science and Technology Career Development Event have been invited to attend the International Poultry Expo, part of the 2019 International Production & Processing Expo, as a result of the USPOULTRY Foundation’s ongoing initiative to further attract students to the poultry and egg industry.
        • The Center for Consumer Freedom sent a letter to State’s Attorney Michael O. Twigg in Cumberland, Maryland, urging for a full and thorough investigation of the animal liberation group PETA for felony wiretapping based on a judge’s ruling in a federal court case. The letter can be read here.
        • The American Feed Industry Association is pleased to see the Donald Trump administration include agriculture in its trade negotiating objectives with the EU, but cautions against seeking these objectives in stages, rather than in a single negotiation.
        • The 2019 Stakeholders Summit will be May 8-9 in Kansas City. To view the agenda and register, visit AnimalAgAlliance.org/Summit. Early registration discounts are available through February 1.
AgWired Animal, Animal Bites