Bayer and 4H Study Shows Need for STEM Education

Cindy Zimmerman

A new study released last week found that more than 80 percent of high school science teachers surveyed think agricultural science is important, but only 22 percent say it makes up at least some of their lesson plans.

In the study, conducted by Bayer and the National 4-H Council, less than half of the teachers surveyed felt qualified to teach agri-science and believe there is less emphasis placed on learning this particular STEM industry today as compared to 15 years ago.

Bayer and National 4-H Council also conducted a survey of more than 1,000 parents of high school students. The survey found that 86 percent of parents agree it’s important for the country’s future success to encourage pursuit of careers in the agricultural industries, and 68 percent said the industry provides exciting career opportunities. However, nearly 70 percent of respondents do not believe their children will pursue a career in agri-science, even though data from the United States Department of Agriculture shows tens of thousands of jobs each year in agriculture go unfilled by qualified candidates.

Bayer and National 4-H launched Science Matters in August 2017 with a goal to equip at least 25,000 students in urban, suburban and rural areas alike with the tools and support they need to deepen their understanding of science.

The initiative just launched a new way to show your support for 4H, STEM and Science Matters – stickers now available for iMessage users! Check them out and start using them today!

Bayer

Zimfo Bytes 3/30

Cindy Zimmerman

  • The Tractor Supply Company Mobile Fair Tour is looking for 4-H and FFA youth who showcase what it means to be a great neighbor. Originating last year, the “Great Neighbor” Essay Contest is an experiential component of the retailer’s Mobile Fair Tour—a 24-stop journey across the United States that will begin its route June 1 in Kentucky and conclude Nov. 10 in Nevada.
  • UnitedAg, a member-owned agricultural trade association representing more than 800 organizations in California and Arizona, has awarded a record $100,250 in scholarships to 86 students from its member-affiliated agricultural families statewide. Provided through UnitedAg’s Agribusiness Education Foundation (AEF), the 2018 awards raise the organization’s historical scholarship total to over $1.4 million since AEF was founded in 2000.
  • Three farmers from a field of 10 finalists introduced will receive $10,000 for their community and a trip for two to their dream sports field as winners of the Power to Do More contest, sponsored by Resicore® corn herbicide from Corteva Agriscience™, Agriculture Division of DowDuPont™. To vote for your favorite finalist, visit PowerToDoMore.com daily and share the voting website with your family, friends and community until Sunday, April 22.
  • American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall received the Distinguished 4-H Alumni Medallion at the ninth annual National 4-H Council Legacy Awards. Duvall joins a prestigious group of 4-H Distinguished Alumni Medallion recipients, including such 4-H alumni as Facebook “news feed” inventor Andrew Bosworth, actress and producer Aubrey Plaza, songwriter and musician Jennifer Nettles, and professor and best-selling author Temple Grandin
  • A workshop on April 10-11 workshop on Economic Returns to Rural Infrastructure Investments will feature a keynote address by USDA Deputy Secretary Steve Censky, as well as presentations by researchers, economists and industry leaders. A collaboration of Farm Foundation and USDA’s Economic Research Service, the workshop will examine current research on the impact of rural infrastructure investments on economic activity.
Zimfo Bytes

EOS Offers Remote Sensing Data for Agriculture

Cindy Zimmerman

Earth Observing System (EOS), a Menlo Park based startup, has released a unique cloud-based platform called EOS Crop Monitoring, which provides solutions for farmers and all sectors of the agriculture supply-chain.

EOS Crop Monitoring allows its partners to extract valuable insights from remote sensing data, including crop types classification maps, crop yield forecasts, field boundaries, vegetation indices, crop conditions, soil moisture and weather data on a field, regional or country scale. It includes both historical and current observations allowing for quick identification of a field’s performance throughout the growing season as well as high-risk areas affected by weather conditions.

EOS Crop Monitoring features include reliable algorithms for more accurate agriculture statistics estimation, crop yield prediction, a seasonal overview of current and historic crop conditions to manage risks and evaluate crop performance. With an extensive global satellite imagery database, EOS’ data analytics provides its partners with new, expanded capabilities, such as the ability to monitor crop production rates in any crop zone at any given time in both numerical and imagery formats.

EOS’ solutions are available in North America, Europe, and the Commonwealth of Independent States, and are currently being developed in Asia, Middle East and North Africa, and South America by applying its own cutting-edge methods and algorithms.

Learn more from EOS.

AgWired Precision, Precision Agriculture

Farmers Intend to Plant Less Corn and Soybeans in 2018

Cindy Zimmerman

U.S. farmers are expected to plant more soybean acres than corn but overall intentions are down slightly from the record year in 2017, according to the Prospective Plantings report released today by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).

Producers surveyed across the United States intend to plant an estimated 89.0 million acres of soybeans and 88.0 million acres of corn in 2018. Soybean acreage is one percent less than 2017 and the corn acres are down 2 percent from last year. If realized this will be the lowest planted corn acreage since 2015.

Planted acreage intentions for soybeans are down or unchanged in 20 of the 31 estimating states. The largest increase is expected in Indiana with 6.10 million acres, an increase of 150,000 acres from 2017. If realized, the planted area of soybeans in Indiana, Kentucky, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin will be the largest on record.

All wheat planted area for 2018 is estimated at 47.3 million acres, up 3 percent from 2017 but the second lowest all wheat planted area on record since records began in 1919. Winter wheat planted area, at 32.7 million acres, is up slightly from both last year and the previous estimate. Area planted to other spring wheat for 2018 is expected to total 12.6 million acres, up 15 percent from 2017. Durum wheat is expected to total 2.00 million acres for 2018, down 13 percent from last year.

All cotton planted area for 2018 is expected to total 13.5 million acres, seven percent higher than last year.

NASS’s acreage estimates are based on surveys conducted during the first two weeks of March from a sample of approximately 82,900 farm operators across the United States.

Commodity research analyst Brian Basting of Advance Trading provided commentary on the report today for MGEX and said the trade was surprised by many of the numbers, especially wheat: Brian Basting, Advance Trading comments on Prospective Plantings

Audio, Corn, Soybean, USDA, Wheat

Deere Introduces 60 Foot No-Till Drill and ProSeries™ Openers

Cindy Zimmerman

Small-grain and oilseed producers can now plant more acres faster and more accurately with the introduction of the 60 foot 1895 No-Till Air Seeder from John Deere, which is 40 percent wider and incorporates many new technologies designed to improve seed and fertilizer placement, while decreasing soil disturbance and maintenance demands.

Highlighted features of the 60-ft. (18.29m) 1895 Seeder include the new ProSeries™ Openers, RelativeFlow™ blockage warning system, TruSet™ in-cab downforce pressure control, and larger, high-floatation tires for less soil compaction when operating in the field. When combined with an air cart and NH₃ wagons, the 1895 provides the ultimate single-pass seeding system for producers of small grains and oilseeds.

The new ProSeries Openers, which replace the 90 Series Openers, will be available for the first time on the wider 1985 and expanded to other models in the future. These performance-driven openers feature a serrated closing wheel option for better seed and fertilizer sealing, narrow and flexible press wheels along with a narrow seed boot for reduced soil disturbance while ensuring more precise seed placement.

Learn more from John Deere.

AgWired Precision, Equipment, John Deere

NCGA President Working Hard for Ethanol in DC

Cindy Zimmerman

National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) president Kevin Skunes has probably spent more time in Washington DC over the past month or so than on his farm in North Dakota, working hard to protect the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and the important market of ethanol for corn growers.

Last week, Skunes joined the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) in visits to Congressional offices. “For the fly-in we go to offices that we wouldn’t normally go to…states that might not be as friendly to ethanol,” said Skunes during an interview at the fly-in.

Since before Commodity Classic, NCGA has been working to educate the administration about Renewable Identification Numbers (RINS) and why they are so important to the overall success of the RFS. “RINs do matter to farmers,” Skunes said. “I think that over the last month and a half, they have come around to see that it would be very detrimental to cap the price of RINs and I hope that we are making some headway.”

Listen to that interview here: Interview with NCGA president Kevin Skunes

2018 ACE DC Fly-in Photo Album

NCGA this week submitted formal comments to the U.S Department of Justice opposing the proposed settlement between Philadelphia Energy Solutions and the EPA regarding the outstanding RFS compliance obligations the refiner has included in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. That situation is what originally brought the RIN price issue to the attention of the administration.

Skunes tweeted on Tuesday this week that he had a chance to visit with Vice President Pence about the RFS. “He said we are looking for a “win, win” solution, I asked him if we could meet to talk about what that solution looks like! He said let’s talk!” Skunes tweeted on Tuesday.

ACE, Audio, Corn, Ethanol, NCGA

Insect Control in Cotton with Prevathon

Jamie Johansen

One of the new products creating buzz from FMC Corporation is Prevathon, which offers insect control in BT cotton. We were able to stop by the FMC booth at the 2018 Mid-South Farm & Gin Show to learn why cotton growers will want to take advantage of Prevathon this growing season.

“Reseach has shown that at least one application of Prevathon as an overspray reduces the amount of damage from those pests and also increases the yield for cotton growers,” said Don Johnson, FMC. “Prevathon gives you up to 21 days of residual control on that cotton plant. With it, you are also getting straight Rynaxypyr. You don’t have a pyrethroid in that combination that will flare mites and aphids in the cotton. And it’s easy on the beneficial insects out there.”

Prevathon insect control delivers crop protection to pests that have developed resistance to products with other modes of action. Listen to my complete interview with Don to learn more: Interview with Don Johnson, FMC Corporation

View and download photos from the event here: 2018 Farm & Gin Show Photo Album

Coverage of the Mid-South Farm & Gin Show is sponsored by
Coverage of the Mid-South Farm & Gin Show is sponsored by FMC
Agribusiness, AgWired Precision, Audio, Cotton, Farm & Gin Show, FMC

USDA Has No Plans to Regulate Gene Edited Plants

Cindy Zimmerman

USDA has no plans to regulate “plants that could otherwise have been developed through traditional breeding techniques as long as they are not plant pests or developed using plant pests,” according to an announcement yesterday from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

This includes a set of new techniques that are increasingly being used by plant breeders to produce new plant varieties that are indistinguishable from those developed through traditional breeding methods. The newest of these methods, such as genome editing, expand traditional plant breeding tools because they can introduce new plant traits more quickly and precisely, potentially saving years or even decades in bringing needed new varieties to farmers.

Gene editing was among the topics discussed during a panel last week at the Agri-Pulse Ag and Food Policy Summit. The panel included American Seed Trade Association CEO Andy LaVigne; Mary Kay Thatcher, Federal Lead for Syngenta; U.S. Grains Council CEO Tom Sleight; and Margaret Zeigler, Executive Director, Global Harvest Initiative.

Listen to the discussion here: Agri-Pulse Trade, Technology, and US Productivity Panel

2018 Ag & Food Policy Summit Photo Album

Agri-Pulse, ASTA, Audio, Plant Breeding, USDA

John Deere Connected Support Helps Dealers Help Growers

Cindy Zimmerman

John Deere Connected Support™ Expert Alerts was honored by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) with the AE50 Award for 2018 as one of the most innovative designs in product engineering in the food and agriculture industry. But for John Deere dealers, what it means is helping their customers reduce downtime and save money, and that gives farmers who buy John Deere equipment piece of mind.

“What’s really cool is that we have embedded technology on our machines,” said Deere Product Marketing Manager Scott Brotherton during an interview at Commodity Classic. “In the event that something should happen in the field, this technology will alert the dealership and make them aware of the problem.”

Expert Alerts utilizes JDLink™ machine connectivity and data analytics to predict service needs, reduce diagnostic time and minimize downtime. This results in higher levels of machine availability, improved machine performance and lower cost of operation. “Customers are starting to see the value first hand because the dealers are so much more responsive,” said Brotherton.

Learn more about Deere Connected Dealer Support in this interview: Interview with Scott Brotherton, John Deere

John Deere at 2018 Commodity Classic

Commodity Classic coverage made possible by
Commodity Classic coverage made possible by FMCCommodity Classic coverage made possible by John Deere
AgWired Precision, Audio, Commodity Classic, John Deere, Precision Agriculture

Precision Ag Bytes 3/28

Cindy Zimmerman

  • A new report from USDA’s Economic Research Service finds that despite higher winter loss rates, the number of U.S. honey bee colonies has remained stable or risen between 1996 and 2016. The report, “Effects and Responses to Changes in Honey Bee Health” provides an overview of the pollination services market and examines empirical data on pollinated crop production, pollination service fees, and annual numbers of honey bee colonies.
  • Farm supply retailer Southern States Cooperative has added industry veterans Jay Quickel and Joe Paoli to head-up their farm supply and sales divisions. Quickel will serve as executive vice president of the co-op’s farm supply division and Paoli comes on board as the executive vice president of sales.
  • Understory, the weather network, edge computing, and machine learning company, has announced an international expansion and strategic collaboration with Monsanto. Monsanto’s use of Understory’s weather network is providing on-the-ground insights into localized weather in Argentina to drive growers’ decisions and optimize high value operations.
  • The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) is currently accepting nominations for the 2018 AEM Hall of Fame. The Hall recognizes and celebrates industry leaders, innovators and pioneers who have contributed to the growth and overall quality of the off-road equipment industry.
  • Nichino America introduces Gatten®, a new fungicide for powdery mildew control in grapes and other crops. Nichino and OAT Agrio Co., Ltd., the discoverer and manufacturer of Gatten, have reached an agreement for Nichino America to market and sell Gatten in the United States and Canada.
AgWired Precision, Precision Ag Bytes