Secretary Perdue Comments on Current Issues

Cindy Zimmerman

Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue visited the Farm Progress Show this week, making an appearance for everyone at the show to enjoy with Max Armstrong and Orion Samuelson in the VIP tent, followed by a press gaggle where trade was the number one topic, along with WOTUS and the Renewable Fuel Standard.

Asked about Canada and its dairy policy – “The president’s been pretty firm on this…We’re not asking Canada to do away totally with their supply-management system, but if they’re going to continue we want them to manage their supply.”

Regarding trade assistance to farmers – “It’s based on what is the tariff damage actually calculated. That’s why you see the difference between the soybean award and the corn award, because of the tariff damage.”

WOTUS court decision – “Administrator Wheeler now is working on a renewed WOTUS rule that will be affirmed in the courts to give our farmers certainty.”

E15 year round – “President called me this morning said let’s get it done.”

Listen here – FPS 18 Secretary Perdue press gaggle

2018 Farm Progress Show

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2018 #FPS18 Bayer Grower Panel on Next Gen Ag

Chuck Zimmerman

The last in the series of Bayer Grower Panels during the Farm Progress Show focused on “Preparing for the next generation of ag – on and off the farm.”

Moderated by Pam Fretwell, the panelists included Bob Arndt, Wisconsin farmer, Jill Bramble, Senior Vp & Chief Resource Development Officer, National 4-H Council, Greg Nickrent, Senior Relationship Manager with BMO Harris, Serena Woodard, 4-H and Jeff Waller, Wisconsin farmer.

You can listen to the panel here: Bayer Grower Panel 3 - Preparing for the next gen of ag


Photos of Bayer activities can be found here: Bayer at 2018 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

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Bayer #FPS18 Grower Panel on Sustainability

Chuck Zimmerman

The second in the series of grower panels held at the Bayer tent during the Farm Progress Show was delayed to Wednesday morning. Moderating once again was Pam Fretwell.

This panel focused on “How sustainable farming practices boost your bottom line.” The panelists were Trey Hill, Harborview Farms, Rock Hall, Maryland and the first Bayer ForwardFarm in the U.S. and Jamie Walter, Whiskey Acres Distilling Company and a farmer in Illinois.

You can listen to the panel here: Bayer Grower Panel 2 - Sustainable Farming Practices


Photos of Bayer activities can be found here: Bayer at 2018 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

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Launching GROWMARK System University

Carrie Muehling

GROWMARK employees will see a change to how they access training and development opportunities with the launch of GROWMARK System University, or GSU, introduced during the company’s annual meeting in Chicago.

“We want to help our employees to understand that there will now be one place to go to search for training and development opportunities, and that one place will be GROWMARK System University. We want to get them into that mindset,” said Michelle Hillary, GROWMARK education analyst. “We have so much great training throughout our divisions, and we want to make it easily accessible for all corporate employees, members, everyone throughout our system.”

Hillary said the idea for the program came about 10 years ago, but the timing just wasn’t right. In the meantime, the company has continued to grow in size and diversity and new technology has afforded more opportunities for employee development. Hillary said team members have spent the past two years or so bringing the project to fruition. She said training and development includes much more than on-site workshops. Employees will also have access to offsite events, podcasts, PDF files and other resources from places like LinkedIn.

Employees across the GROWMARK and FS System will have the same access to all of those training and development resources, as well as ample communication and coaching about how to learn and manage the new GROWMARK System University website.

Listen to Carrie’s interview with Michelle here: Interview with Michelle Hillary, GROWMARK

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Secretary Sonny Shows Ethanol Support

Cindy Zimmerman

A rally organized by corn and ethanol producers at the Farm Progress Show got the attention of USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue and Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation Bill Northey who stopped by to show their support. It was a last minute decision by the secretary, who brought greetings and another promise from President Trump, who called Perdue as he was driving on to the show grounds.

“He said…we need to get this RFS straightened out and get E15 twelve months,” said Perdue. “He wants something done quickly. He said, ‘you get with that EPA Administrator and bring me something next week that I can announce.'”

Organized by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association and state corn growers, the rally included a number of other speakers, including:

IRFA Executive Director Monte Shaw; Iowa corn grower Jim Greif; Iowa farmer Jerry Calease; NCGA president Kevin Skunes from North Dakota; RFA past president Randy Doyal of Al-Corn Clean Fuel; Iowa Biodiesel Board member Ron Heck; and Rep. Steve King (R-IA)

Listen to it here: #FPS18 RFS Rally

Watch it here:


2018 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

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Bayer Discusses Integration With Monsanto

Cindy Zimmerman

There were lots of people at the Farm Progress Show this week wearing different hats – or shirts – as a result of Bayer’s acquisition of Monsanto, which just became final-final this month. There were former Monsanto people now working for Bayer and former Bayer people working for BASF now, and let’s just say it will take some time before everyone gets used to it.

Brett Begemann was president and COO for Monsanto up until this month when he became CEO of Crop Science Commercial Operations for Bayer – or maybe Chief Operating Officer for Bayer Crop Science – his title is not entirely clear. He says their goal is to “take a terrific crop protection portfolio, a great seeds and traits portfolio, the world’s best digital platform for agriculture and bring those together into one company … to drive innovation in agriculture faster than we’ve seen agriculture drive innovation before.”

Begemann was joined by two other Monsanto legacy execs now with Bayer – Bob Reiter, head of Research and Development at Bayer Crop Science, and Jesus Madrazo, head of Agricultural Affairs & Sustainability, to talk about how they are growing stronger together and to take questions from the media.

Listen here: #FPS18 Bayer Monsanto Integration press conference

Watch it here:


2018 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

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BASF Provides Dicamba Update at #FPS18

Cindy Zimmerman

An update on dicamba from BASF and a couple of growers drew a lot of media interest this week at Farm Progress Show.

Scott Kay, BASF Vice President of U.S. Agricultural Solutions, talked with farmers Steve Anderson of Iowa and Scott Dauk from Minnesota about their experiences using BASF’s advanced dicamba formulation Engenia® Herbicide this year on their operations.

Listen to their comments here: #FPS18 BASF Dicamba press conference

2018 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

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Weather Causes Early End to FPS18 Day One

Cindy Zimmerman

There’s always something new at Farm Progress Show and this year a big storm caused something that has never happened before – an evacuation and shut down of the show before noon.

Rain had been in the forecast for the day, but everyone was hoping it would either miss us or not be too bad. However, when the storm was within minutes of hitting, reports of hail, strong winds, and lightning in the area forced organizers to shut everything down and and try the get people out as quickly and safely as possible. Unfortunately, the downpour created muddy conditions in the parking areas almost immediately and dozens of vehicles become stuck in the mud, which made leaving a lot more difficult.

Day two is like day one all over again, since everyone is now a half day behind and struggling to reschedule activities scheduled for yesterday afternoon, plus we have Secretary Sonny on the grounds starting at noon.

Watch this video from the Bayer tent as Pam Fretwell was moderating the farmer panel and got the word to tell everyone to evacuate.


2018 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

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Precision Ag Bytes 8/29

Carrie Muehling

  • Syngenta announced the expansion of the NK® soybean portfolio with 13 new varieties for the 2019 season, furthering the company’s commitment to helping growers maximize whole-farm profit potential through innovation.
  • Syngenta also announced that Force® 6.5G, a high-load granular corn insecticide for control of corn rootworm, is registered by the Environmental Protection Agency and will be available for the 2019 growing season.
  • The American Soybean Association and the United Soybean Board present the final installation in a series of webinars designed to help soybean farmers understand how new technology and effective data management can help improve the sustainability of their operations. On Aug. 30 at 1 p.m. Central Time, learn more about pairing a solid plan for managing data with the use of existing and emerging technology tools from planting, fertility and crop protection all the way to harvest from The Ohio State University’s Dr. John Fulton. Click here to register.
  • CommoditAg.com, an e-commerce platform for growers, announced expanding into Minnesota with the addition of Farmward® Cooperative based in Morgan, Minnesota.
  • Benson Hill Biosystems and Agribody Technologies, Inc. are partnering to deliver non-GMO yield and sustainability traits for seed companies working in corn, soy, alfalfa, cotton, sugarbeets, canola, potatoes, peanut, beans, rice, sorghum, wheat, and flowers.
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Bayer Grower Panel on Smart Agronomics at #FPS18

Chuck Zimmerman

This morning in the Bayer tent growers got to listen to one of three panel discussions planned throughout this year’s show. Each panel will feature growers and experts who will share their advice and strategies that are paying off on their operations.

The first of the Bayer grower panels was titled, “Smart Agronomic Decisions to Help Manage Farm Margins.” The Moderator was Pam Fretwell, Fretwell Communications and the panelists were Todd Golly, MN Farmer and Co-Founder of Aker, Kyle Meece, IL Farmer and Innovation Agronomy Lead at United Prairie and Mike Weber, Principal Scientist at Bayer.

You can listen to the panel here: Bayer Grower Panel 1 - Smart Agronomics

Panel interviews:
Bayer panel farmer Todd Golly, Minnesota
Bayer panel farmer Kyle Meese, Illinois


Photos of Bayer activities can be found here: Bayer at 2018 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

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