Timac Agro USA Introduces Fertiactyl®ST Seed Treatment

Cindy Zimmerman

Timac Agro USA, a provider of crop nutritional solutions, introduces Fertiactyl® ST, a liquid seed treatment suitable for any crop started from seed. This formulation was developed from Timac Agro’s Fertiactyl® GZ to help farmers battle environmental stress during spring planting. It is the newest addition to an extensive portfolio developed from 20 years of research and development in the plant extract and liquid patented formulas sectors.

Fertiactyl® ST is formulated with the Fertiactyl® Complex, which is comprised of precision plant extracts, zinc, and humic and fulvic acids. Fertiactyl® ST was officially launched at the 2018 Commodity Classic where Timac’s National Specialty Crops Manager, Alex Duffy, presented at a What’s New session.

“Fertiactyl® ST is a seed treatment using our active ingredient that helps with establishment and reducing stress in adverse growing conditions,” said Duffy.

The intent of the product is to provide farmers a seed treatment to protect growing seedlings from tough environmental conditions. Extremes in temperature, water, and salinity can severely impact crop establishment. By reducing the negative impacts of these stressors, emergence, root growth, and recovery time after stress are improved.

“One of the most economical options we’ve developed in the past few years is Fertiactyl® ST,” said John D. Bailey, Ph.D., National Row Crops Manager for Timac Agro USA. “With many farmers treating their own seed on the farm, as well as major expansion in seed treatment options at the retail level, we recognized a major unmet need in this space. That need was to transform the world’s leading seaweed extract technology into a suitable formula to put directly on the seed.”

Recent independent research has demonstrated that soybeans treated with Fertiactyl® ST improved yield compared to fungicide/insecticide seed treatments. This synergy with existing seed treatments will be the subject of future research. Several other independent studies showed improved performance and ROI from Fertiactyl® ST compared to other biological seed treatment products. Information on Fertiactyl® ST and BioSinc® research studies can be found at http://www.us.timacagro.com/research.

Listen to or download comments from Alex Duffy, Timac National Specialty Crops Manager –

Comments on introduction of Fertiactyl® ST at Commodity Classic

Timac Agro is developing unique products for crop nutrition
AgWired Precision, Audio, Crop Protection, Seed

USDA Quarterly Hogs & Pigs Report

Chuck Zimmerman

As of June 1, there were 73.5 million hogs and pigs on U.S. farms, up three percent from June 2017, and up 1 percent from March 1, according to the USDA’s Quarterly Hogs and Pigs Report out Thursday. The National Pork Board provided commentators to discuss the report via teleconference. The call featured three distinguished agricultural economists and their reactions to the report.

The panelists included:

  • Dr. Ron Plain, Professor Emeritus, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
  • Dr. Lee Shulz, Associate Professor, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
  • Joe Kerns, President, Kerns and Associates, Ames, IA

Economist Steve Meyer with Kerns and Associates starts with a summary of the report.

Listen to the complete teleconference here: USDA’s Quarterly Hogs and Pigs Report - 6-28-2018

Animal Agriculture, Pork, Pork Checkoff, Swine, USDA

Zimfo Bytes 6/29

Carrie Muehling

  • The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) has announced that Corteva Agriscience Vice President of External Affairs and Chief Sustainability Officer Krysta Harden will receive the 5th annual Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology and Agriculture. Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) will receive the 11th annual George Washington Carver Award for Innovation in Industrial Biotechnology. Both awards will be presented at the 2018 BIO World Congress July 16-19.
  • Drs. Lawrence Haddad and David Nabarro are the 2018 World Food Prize Laureates, announced during a ceremony at USDA. The Prize rewards their individual but complementary global leadership in elevating maternal and child undernutrition with the result of reducing the world’s number of stunted children by 10 million between 2012 and 2017.
  • Iowa Women in Agriculture has announced its 12th annual conference at the FFA Enrichment Center in Ankeny Aug. 2. This year’s theme is Connections, Challenges and Celebrations.
  • American Agri-Women (AAW) proudly presented the 2018 Champion of Agriculture Award to Representative James Comer of Kentucky and Representative Steve Pearce of New Mexico during their annual Fly-In in Washington, D.C. in June. AAW recently recognized Congressman Tom Emmer of Minnesota with the Presidential Leadership Award for his role in sponsoring the Stemming the Tide of Rural Economic Stress and Suicide bill, known as the Stress Act (H.R. 5259).
  • The American Soybean Association and Corteva Agriscience™, Agriculture Division of DowDuPont are seeking applicants for the 2018-19 Young Leader Program. Applications are available online now.
  • The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the appointment of Dr. Jennifer Tucker as Deputy Administrator of the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service National Organic Program, part of the Marketing and Regulatory Programs mission area.
ASA, Zimfo Bytes

Adding Value with Identity Preservation

Carrie Muehling

Identity preservation (IP) is a popular way to add value to a grower’s corn crop, but it takes some attention to detail.

“Identity preservation is a mindset,” said Chuck Hill, specialty products manager for AgriGold Hybrids. “You’re not producing corn. You’re producing an ingredient that goes into a variety of things, and that’s what the buyer wants.”

Hill presented at the 2018 Corn Utilization and Technology Conference in St. Louis, where he told corn growers that consumers want consistency and no surprises. That, in turn, is what buyers are looking for as they source ingredients for products from tortilla chips to barbecue to whiskey and even ethanol. He said preventing and managing contamination is one of the biggest challenges for IP growers, but there are lots of tools available. Keeping track of every step in the growing process is key.

“And now in this day and age of the consumer that really is demanding to know where their food comes from, now more documentation, more traceability is out there,” said Hill. “If you’re an IP grower, you’re going to have to be willing to document what you’re doing and answer a lot of questions and even some of those questions go outside of what you did in that field, but that’s the world that we’re in now.”

While many growers are already working under contract with specific identity preservation specifications, even those who are not might be able to sell products at a premium if the demand is there. Hill recommended documenting everything and keeping hybrids separated in different bins to be ready for the potential of selling that product for added value.

Interview with Chuck Hill, Specialty Products Manager, AgriGold at CUTC 18

2018 Corn Utilization & Technology Conference Photo Album

AgWired Precision, Audio, Corn, CUTC

ZimmCast 589 – Incredible Eggs & New CEO of USFRA

Chuck Zimmerman

In this week’s program you’ll hear mostly from Cindy and the people she interviewed recently. So, let’s get started by thanking our sponsor, GROWMARK, Locally Owned, Globally Strong.

First up will be an interview Cindy did with American Egg Board Marketing Communications Manager Marc Dresner. They discuss the AEB’s eggciting promotional sponsorship of Disney-Pixar’s “Incredibles 2” that has audiences scrambling for new “How Do You Like Your Eggs?” recipes reflecting each of the film’s character’s unique personality or super power. The film has made the Incredible Egg into a nutrition super hero!

Then you’ll get to meet Erin Fitzgerald, the new CEO of the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance starting in July. Fitzgerald previously served as Senior Vice President, Global Sustainability for the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy®, a part of Dairy Management Inc. (DMI).

Listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 589 - Incredible Eggs & New CEO of USFRA

I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

Subscribe to the ZimmCast podcast here. Use this url in iTunes or your favorite news reader program/app.

The ZimmCast

sponsored by
The ZimmCast podcast is sponsored by GROWMARK
Locally owned, globally strong.
Audio, Food, USFRA, ZimmCast

GROWMARK Wants More Interns to Stay

Carrie Muehling

GROWMARK would like to see more of their interns to choose a full-time career at the cooperative after completing the internship experience.

The Exploring Agriculture program is geared towards community college students and those with an interest in the operational side of GROWMARK’s business. This year a total of 32 interns joined that program, being placed throughout the cooperative’s core territory of Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. Some completed internships as a part of the spring class and others are working through the summer. The Exploring Agriculture program is in its sixth year, and it’s growing.

GROWMARK also hired 41 students for its traditional internship program, with six working at the home office and the rest spread throughout the core territory this summer. Interns work in a variety of areas including agronomy, energy, accounting, finance, marketing, communication and human resources. Students are usually given a specific project to focus on in addition to daily responsibilities.

“It gives them something to work on outside of their actual tasks and day to day things that they can kind of own,” said Kayla Portwood, university relations manager. “It’s something that’s of a business need to GROWMARK or their member company or retail division, which is exciting for them because they’re actually contributing to real world work that their companies need, and it’s of value to the company and to the interns.”

One of the company’s goals right now is to increase the conversion rate of interns to full-time employees. By 2020, the cooperative hopes to hire 40 percent of interns into full-time positions each year. Currently, 26 percent of last year’s interns are working at GROWMARK full-time. The Exploring Agriculture program has a higher conversion rate because many students are graduating right after the internship experience or have already graduated when they completed the internship.

Portwood said GROWMARK is also recruiting more students without an agriculture background, as they can learn many aspects of agriculture and the other skills required on the job.

Check out the list of this year’s GROWMARK interns.

Learn more in this interview – Interview with Kayla Portwood, GROWMARK

AgWired Precision, Audio, Education, GROWMARK

IFIC Foundation Survey Results on Bioengineered Food Labeling

Chuck Zimmerman

As a foodie kind of person a new survey by the International Food Information Council Foundation (IFIC) has some very interesting results. There is a lot of information in the report. It is titled, “Research with Consumers To Test Perceptions and Reactions To Various Stimuli and Visuals
Related to Bioengineered Foods.”

Here is a short note about the findings to start with.

Labels proposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) to disclose “bioengineered” (BE) foods dramatically increase a wide variety of consumer concerns, especially regarding human health.

Those are among the findings of new research by the International Food Information Council (IFIC) Foundation into areas where AMS sought comments on its proposed BE labeling standards, as well as consumers’ views generally of genetically modified foods, or GMOs.

Based on what I’ve read there is a significant need for more and better public education about these topics. It is amazing how little people know or how much they think is true that is not when it comes to food. The graphic with the canola oil bottle shows how consumers were presented information (labeling) and what the results were. Basically, as information that was shown on the label increased, respondents fears about human health increased. That certainly brings up concerns regarding the USDA-AMS July 3 deadline to comment on the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Law.

So, what do you do about labeling? What is proper and enough? What do you do when consumers don’t know what the label actually means?

You can read the full report here or download the .pdf here.

Food, GMO, Marketing, USDA

Alltech Crop Science Receives Organic Certifications

Cindy Zimmerman

Alltech Crop Science has attained organic certification in North America for two of its micronutrient fertilizers – Grain-Set® and Agro-Mos®.

The two products are based on amino acid and fermentation technology and join the company’s other Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI)-certified products, including Soil-Set®, Crop-Set® and Galvanize® Contact, increasing options for organic growers to meet the nutritional needs of their crops.

“Consumers are demanding more natural products that are sustainable and traceable, and we’re excited to be able to offer an expanded organically certified line to our growers who are looking to meet those demands,” said Dr. Steven Borst, Alltech Crop Science general manager, who notes that the company now offers a certified organic product for every stage of a plant’s growth cycle.

This certification further solidifies Alltech Crop Science’s commitment to Alltech’s founding ACE principle, the promise that in doing business, the company has a positive impact on agriculture, the consumer and the environment.

Alltech, Fertilizer, Organic

Precision Ag Bytes 6/27

Carrie Muehling

  • The Soil Health Partnership embarks on its fifth year of participating in dozens of field days across 12 states this summer and fall. For a list of field days and to register, visit www.soilhealthpartnership.org.
  • The 14th International Conference on Precision Agriculture (ICPA) is wrapping up in Montreal, Quebec. The conference is presented by the International Society of Precision Agriculture. The final Oral and Poster programs are posted on the 14th ICPA website, including over 250 oral presentations, 30 industry talks, and 20 plenary session talks.
  • Exporting tree nuts and other specialty crops to EU countries has just gotten simpler for growers in California and throughout the US with an increased maximum residue level (MRL) limit EU ruling based upon residue data developed by IR-4 and almond, pistachio, and walnut grower groups under a USDA grant with support from Verdesian Life Sciences.
  • FMC has received confirmation from the EPA that Anthem®MAXX herbicide has been cleared for inclusion with XtendiMax® with VaporGrip® Technology and Engenia® herbicides. FMC herbicide tank-mix options now include the following herbicide products: Anthem MAXX, Authority® First DF, Authority® Elite, Authority® XL, Authority® MAXX, Authority® MTZ DF and Authority® Assist.
  • AMVAC Chemical Corporation has announced the purchase of the Bromacil herbicide business in the United States and Canada from Bayer Crop Science. This transaction is unrelated to the acquisition of Monsanto by Bayer, and financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
AgWired Precision, AMVAC, FMC, Precision Ag Bytes, Soil Health Partnership, Verdesian

EPA Releases 2019 Biofuel Proposal

Cindy Zimmerman

The Environmental Protection Agency released its proposal for 2019 biofuel obligations under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Tuesday, maintaining the statutory level for corn ethanol while increasing advanced biofuels, but failing to address the small refinery exemptions that have decimated demand and effectively lowered the required amount of biofuels to be blended.

Under the proposed rule, conventional renewable fuel volumes would be maintained at the implied 15-billion gallon target set by Congress for 2019, the advanced biofuel standard would be increased by almost 600 million gallons over the 2018 standard – including an increase of 100 million gallons for the cellulosic biofuel standard and a 330 million gallon increase for the biomass-based diesel standard for 2020.

EPA is also “taking comment on a host of ways to improve market transparency, including by limiting who can participate in the Renewable Identification Number (RIN) market and the length of time a RIN can be held.”

The ethanol industry would be more pleased with the rule if it had addressed the gallons lost due to refinery waivers, according to Renewable Fuels Association president and CEO Bob Dinneen. “The agency had language in the proposal until about two days ago that would have, at least for future small refinery waivers, created a more transparent process by which those gallons would have been reallocated,” said Dinneen. The proposal was scheduled to be released last Friday but delayed at the last minute, reportedly because the oil industry was against the reallocation plan.

Listen to Dinneen’s reaction to the proposal: Interview with RFA CEO Bob Dinneen on EPA 2019 RVO proposal

Audio, EPA, Ethanol, RFA