Builta Named GROWMARK Vice President, Energy and Logistics

Carrie Muehling

GROWMARK has named Mike Builta the new Vice President of Energy and Logistics. He will replace Kevin Carroll, who will retire on February 15 after 32 years of service.

GROWMARK’s energy and logistics division includes lubricants, propane, diesel and gasoline products. It also encompasses the warehouses for storage and transportation of those products.

“It’s a huge portion of the business. We’re around two billion gallons worth of fuel, which includes the propane and diesel, gas and lubricants. It is a large footprint for GROWMARK. It’s definitely a large portion of their business,” said Builta.

Builta said this area has seen a great deal of growth and he will continue to look at growth opportunities. GROWMARK covers a large portion of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, as well as Ontario, Canada.

Builta has managed GRAINCO FS in Ottawa, Ill., for the past six years. Prior to that, he worked at Christian County FS in Taylorville, Ill., for 15 years.

Listen to Cindy’s interview with Mike here: Mike Builta, GROWMARK

Audio, GROWMARK

NCBA President Reflects on 2017

Carrie Muehling

During his time as president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Craig Uden has had the opportunity to see a lot of cattle country and meet with many producers like himself. He believes the grassroots nature of the organization continues to be one of its most important attributes.

“These challenges that come from these states are the backbone of why we exist,” said Uden. “We bring those challenges, create opportunities and whatever we come up with, we move out as policy for NCBA and I think that’s been key.”

Uden said one goal he had coming into this time of service was to strengthen the partnership between the state organizations and the national leadership, and he feels a sense of accomplishment in that area. He also recognized relationships built with many leaders and policymakers in Washington, D.C. and some wins in the area of regulatory reform. Uden said challenges remain in the area of trade and also with the next Farm Bill discussion on the horizon.

Listen to Jamie’s interview with Craig Uden here: Craig Uden, 2017 NCBA President

Hear Craig’s remarks during the convention here: Craig Uden's Convention Remarks

2018 Cattle Industry Convention & Trade Show Photo Album

Ag Groups, AgWired Animal, Animal Agriculture, Audio, Beef, Cattle Industry Conference, NCBA

#CattleCon18 Kicks Off in Phoenix

Jamie Johansen

The 2018 Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show is underway and cattlemen and women are ready to Blaze a Trail in Phoenix, Arizona. We caught up with NCBA CEO Kendal Frazier to talk about the convention and what draws producers to the event year after year.

“We are going to have a big crowd here in Phoenix. We expect over 7,000 people this week. The reason we have the convention is to have meetings of our governance, our board of directors, our executive committees. They will develop and work on their plan for this fiscal year. But we have a lot of other things that go on during the convention,” Frazier said.

Those other things include the largest trade show in the events history, a rodeo, and cowboy comedy night to name a few. We are hosting and sourcing the Virtual Ag Newsroom for #CattleCon18, which will be updating constantly.

Listen to my chat with Kendal here: Interview with Kendal Frazier, NCBA CEO

2018 Cattle Industry Convention & Trade Show Photo Album

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TapLogic Provides ‘Ease and Control’ in Soil Sampling

Carrie Muehling

Cyrus Alexander and Jason Klotz, TapLogic

Growers who want to handle soil sampling on their own terms might appreciate the connection between John Deere and TapLogic, a longtime leader in “do it yourself” soil sampling.

“We really built everything with the grower in mind first,” said Cyrus Alexander with TapLogic. “It’s ease and control. Control is a big thing… control and choice. A grower gets to have his own account, his own farms and fields. He samples. He knows the quality of the samples, where he’s pulling them, what he’s testing for. And then from there, he gets to see his results and see what he needs to put down where. He’s telling himself now what fertilizer he needs to put and the prescriptions he needs to help. And we just help him along the way.”

Alexander said growers can use the company’s Soil Test Pro software to schedule sampling and gather that information through the John Deere Operations Center, giving them more control over the soil sampling process. Alexander was at the 2018 Develop with Deere conference.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Cyrus here: Interview with Cyrus Alexander, TapLogic

You can find conference photos here: 2018 Develop with Deere Conference Photo Album

AgWired Precision, Audio, John Deere, Precision Agriculture

Large and Small Companies Collaborate for Grower Success

Carrie Muehling

Liron Brish and Michael Hermon, Farm Dog

Building a relationship with an established company like John Deere can be a game changer for a start up company like Farm Dog.

“Getting that Deere brand next to our name is just huge on the credibility aspect,” said Liron Brish, co-founder and CEO of Farm Dog. “I’m no longer random Farm Dog company when I go speak with a grower, but rather, Farm Dog that works with Deere. So, from that aspect, it’s incredible for us.”

Farm Dog’s mission is to make scouting more effective and more efficient. The company has developed an app available for use on phones and tablets that will allow anyone scouting a field to more easily record and communicate observations collected. They can then use that information to formulate a prescription for spraying that field, for example. The app also will alert growers to disease and insect pressure that might be present in a particular geography.

You can listen to Chuck’s interview here: Interview with Liron Brish, Farm Dog

You can find conference photos here: 2018 Develop with Deere Conference Photo Album

AgWired Precision, Audio, John Deere, Precision Agriculture

Farmers Mutual Hail Turning Data Into Usable Information

Carrie Muehling

Since the acquisition of John Deere Insurance Company in 2014, Farmers Mutual Hail has built upon advancements in technology and resources to ease the processes for acreage reporting, adjusting reporting and claims adjusting for crop insurance.

“One example would be saving hours compiling scale tickets and all the various pieces of information that you have to aggregate to actually do your reporting, either production reporting or acreage reporting,” said David DeCapp with Farmers Mutual Hail. “What this does is make that digitized information as you’re planting or as you’re harvesting, to be able to just hit a button, literally, and send that information through the Operations Center and into our systems so the grower doesn’t have that much work that they have to do.”

DeCapp said the company talked with lots of dealers at the 2018 Develop with Deere conference about how to ensure equipment is calibrated accurately to make the data work effectively for the customer.

You can hear Chuck’s interview with David here: Interview with David DeCapp, Farmers Mutual Hail

Farmers Mutual Hail is celebrating 125 years of service to farmers this year and DeCapp talks about that here: David DeCapp, Farmers Mutual Hail 125th anniversary

You can find conference photos here: 2018 Develop with Deere Conference Photo Album

AgWired Precision, Audio, Crop Insurance, John Deere, Precision Agriculture

Reaction to President Trump’s SOTU

Cindy Zimmerman

President Donald Trump made no direct mention of agriculture in his first State of the Union address, but he did address important issues for agriculture and rural America including infrastructure and immigration, trade and taxes.

Trump called on Congress to “produce a bill that generates at least $1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment that our country so desperately needs,” which American Farm Bureau Federation president Zippy Duvall says would help rural communities. “Infrastructure upgrades tied to our rural communities will help pave the way for economic renewal that is so badly needed,” said Duvall.

National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson was also pleased with that message. “There is clearly a growing need for significant federal investment in our nation’s roads, rails, broadband, locks and dams. We urge the administration and Congress to move swiftly in developing the promised comprehensive infrastructure package.”

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue was pleased with the president’s address and his commitment to agriculture. “President Trump’s unifying address to the nation recounted this administration’s impressive achievements in its first year, which have strengthened the economy for all Americans, including those who do the important work in the agriculture sector. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is already helping workers and will allow agricultural producers to invest more in their operations and their own families,” said Perdue. “This is a president who has rural America and agriculture close to his heart, as his words and deeds clearly demonstrate.”

AFBF, AgWired Animal, AgWired Precision, USDA

Precision Ag Bytes 1/31

Carrie Muehling

  • The annual Nebraska Agricultural Technologies Association (NeATA) conference will be Feb. 7-8 in Kearney at the Younes Conference Center. Learn more about the conference here.
  • The National Association of Conservation Districts announced the 2017 poster and photo contests winners at the organization’s 72nd Annual Meeting. Each year, the NACD and NACD Auxiliary photo and poster contests give students and adults the opportunity to display their artistic talents on a national stage.
AgWired Precision, Precision Ag Bytes

More Dealers Attend Develop with Deere Conference

Carrie Muehling

In an effort to help local dealers build better relationships with the software companies that often provide third party support to growers, John Deere again invited both groups to its 2018 Develop with Deere conference.

“We’re going to continue to add more and more solutions that can be built off the John Deere Operations Center platform and then that will cause us to continue to grow the conference as well to be able to get more of those solutions in front of the dealers,” said Kevin Krieg, a software segment manager with John Deere.

Krieg said John Deere machines generate lots of data, and software companies often supplement that and bring in things like aerial and satellite imagery, scouting apps and other tools to fill in the gaps of what is happening within the fields. The conference offered classroom sessions for dealers as well as the Solutions Expo trade show, where dealers could interact with and learn more about software companies and the products they offer.

You can here Chuck’s interview with Kevin here: Interview with Kevin Krieg, John Deere

You can find conference photos here: 2018 Develop with Deere Conference Photo Album

AgWired Precision, Audio, John Deere, Precision Agriculture

Farmer-led Irrigation is Focus of Forum

Cindy Zimmerman

Peter McCornick (R) with one of many international forum attendees

Over 200 attendees from around the world are gathered in Washington D.C. this week to focus on opportunities for farmer-led irrigated agriculture for small holder farmers in developing countries. The international forum is being produced jointly by the World Bank and the Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska.

“This forum is really is a culmination of a number of years of effort around trying to bring more attention to small scale producers and how we invest in that section in irrigated agriculture,” said Peter McCornick, Executive Director for the institute, who adds that the idea for the forum came out of last year’s global conference.

In this interview, McCornick talks about the forum and what they hope to accomplish –
Interview with Peter McCornick, Water for Food Institute

2018 Water for Food Forum Photos

Audio, International, Irrigation, Water, Water for Food