John Deere Announces New Generation 4 Display Applications

Chuck Zimmerman

John Deere has announced four new precision applications for the Generation 4 Displays. These are being sold in a bundle activation deal for the John Deere 4600 CommandCenter™ and as bundled subscriptions for 4640 Universal Displays. I visited with John Misher, John Deere, to learn more about each of them.

“These new applications are machine-specific bundled activations with the 4600 CommandCenter and provide late-model John Deere machine owners with outstanding technology value,” said Misher, precision agriculture product marketing manager with John Deere.

The four applications are:
AutoTrac Turn Automation
AutoTrac Implement Guidance
AutoTrac Vision for Tractors
In-Field Data Sharing

Learn more in this interview: Interview with John Misher, John Deere

AgWired Precision, Audio, John Deere, Precision Agriculture

Clariant Agrocer™ Now Granulated

Cindy Zimmerman

Clariant once again brightened up the trade show floor at the CSS 2017 and Seed Expo last week in Chicago and announced the latest development in their dedicated range of colorants for the agricultural industry.

Clariant’s Agrocer seed colorants are now available in pre-dispersed granulated pigments with a very small particle size making them easy to disperse in cold water. “These are actually dried granules and are dust-free,” said Mark Self, market segment manager for Clariant. “They require minimal effort – just basically a stir-in.”

Self says Clariant has learned quite a bit from exhibiting at the seed expo for the last three years, and actually developed the new granulated product based on customer feedback at the show. “We get to meet a lot of seed companies and major producers of seed so we get to learn more of their needs and what they are looking for,” he said.

The new pre-dispersed granules flow like liquid, can be metered and are suitable for applications where a dust-free dry stir in process is needed. Agrocer Green 007 Gran. and Agrocer Yellow 001 Gran. are currently available in the granulated form. More colors will be added in the coming months.

Learn more in this interview: Interview with Mark Self, Clariant

2017 ASTA CSS and Seed Expo photo album

AgWired Precision, ASTA, Audio, Clariant, Seed

ZimmCast from #ASTACSS

Cindy Zimmerman

This ZimmCast comes to you from the ASTA CSS 2017 and Seed Expo in Chicago which I attended last week for the sixth year in a row, and Jamie got to experience for the first time.

Founded in 1883, the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) is one of the oldest trade organizations in the United States. The CSS stands for corn, sorghum and soybeans. The conference, which is held annually in Chicago, began as the Corn & Sorghum Conference in 1945. The Soybean Seed Research Conference was added in 1970 and the Seed Expo trade show started six years later. All wrapped into one, the event brings about 2500 seed industry professionals together every year to usher in the holiday season by unwrapping the latest seed research, policy, and technology.

Jamie and I sat down with Greg Lammert of Rhea+Kaiser, who was at the event representing their client Bayer, and we talked about the conference, the industry and communicating the story of agriculture. Also included are interviews with ASTA chair Tracy Tally of Justin Seed Co. and Julie Borlaug, Inari Agriculture who spoke at the meeting. Enjoy!

Listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 568 from the ASTA CSS 2017 & Seed Expo

2017 ASTA CSS and Seed Expo photo album

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

The ZimmCast

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The ZimmCast podcast is sponsored by GROWMARK
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Agencies, ASTA, Audio, Seed, ZimmCast

Animal Ag Bites 12/11

Carrie Muehling

  • Merck Animal Health hosted leading animal welfare experts together with subject matter experts from agriculture, food processing/packing and retail in a first of its kind symposium “Advancing Animal Welfare Together” in September in Dallas, Texas. The gathering explored ways to work together to address practices essential to animal welfare today, and advancements possible in the future.
  • The November Dairy Market Report from the National Milk Producers Federation reports recent signs that overall supply has been gradually heading back toward balance with demand in U.S. domestic dairy markets. These include year-over-year growth in milk production well below 2 percent, slower growth in cheese production, further reduction in cheese stocks and continued growth in cheese exports.
  • Pig farmers and food production companies alike are wrapping up a successful 2017 that continues to show steady consumer demand for pork. The summer grilling season ended strongly, and signs point to a solid year-end opportunity for ham. The National Pork Board shares Nielsen Perishables Group data showing overall retail spending on pork by U.S. consumers was up by more than 3 percent in dollar sales during the month of October.
  • The American Hereford Association (AHA) released the first updated expected progeny differences (EPDs) and corresponding accuracies using the Biometric Open Language Tools (BOLT) genetic evaluation software Dec. 4. The new genetic evaluation also includes two new traits, Sustained Cow Fertility (SCF) and Dry Matter Intake (DMI), and updated profit ($) indexes. EPDs will be released once a week, an increase in frequency from the previous 10 times a year.
  • Dr. Max Hawkins, nutritionist with the Alltech Mycotoxin Management team, will present data collected across the U.S. as part of the 2017 Alltech U.S. Harvest Analysis. The presentation will outline the mycotoxin risk levels found in both forages and grains, focusing on ruminants. Register for the Dec. 14 webinar here.

     

AgWired Animal, Animal Bites

2017 Deer Hunt – John Deere Gator – Episode 2

Chuck Zimmerman

Hello and welcome to episode number two of a series of videos and posts I’m doing, along with other members of our Crystal Pig Hunt Club (CPHC), throughout the Georgia deer hunting season. We’re well into this year’s season and have been out on the property several times. I’m making plans for at least one more trip this year, keeping my finger crossed.

Here’s Paul’s son, Joe, who once again got his deer on his first trip out. He got to ride in the John Deere Gator XUV825i we’ve been test driving and likes it. In the video below you can hear him talk to Paul about hunting with a Gator while they are heading out to their stands on a sunny afternoon.

You can see photos of the Gator in the wild here: 2017 Deer Hunt – John Deere Gator Photo Album


Hunting, John Deere, Video

Zimfo Bytes 12/8

Carrie Muehling

    • MGEX, a Designated Contract Market (DCM) and Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO), has recorded the second-highest monthly exchange volume number for November with 245,980 contracts. This number is also 9% greater than last year’s November total.
    • Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has announced the appointment of five members to serve on the United Sorghum Checkoff Program Board. The United Sorghum Checkoff Program is comprised of 13 U.S. sorghum farmers.  Membership includes five seats for the largest production state (Kansas), three seats for the second largest production state (Texas) and one seat for the third largest production state (Oklahoma).
    • Land O’Lakes, Inc. has announced the promotions of Beth Ford and Brad Oelmann.  Beth Ford will head all Land O’Lakes Businesses and Brad Oelmann will head all Land O’Lakes Services. Both promotions are effective Jan. 1, 2018.

     

Zimfo Bytes

Bayer Helps Fund ASTA Communications Efforts

Cindy Zimmerman

The American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) unveiled a new video at the CSS 2017 & Seed Expo to help explain plant breeding innovations in a brief and entertaining way.

The video is one of the communications efforts that ASTA partner Bayer has helped to support. Bayer seed traits and seed treatments management lead Brad May, who serves on the ASTA board, says they are really excited about the new video. “It’s more of a story, the history of how food was developed and what the future holds,” said May. “I think it will really help tell the story of what we do.”

Learn more in this interview and watch the video below: Interview with Brad May, Bayer

2017 ASTA CSS and Seed Expo photo album

Please share on social media!


ASTA, Audio, Bayer, Video

Digital Ag and Big Data

Cindy Zimmerman

As our digital world expands in agriculture, big data keeps getting bigger and making a bigger difference in how farmers make decisions.

Digital Agriculture: Big Data was a session this week at the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) CSS 2017 & Seed Expo. University of Wisconsin agronomy professor Shawn Conley moderated the session which included presentations from:

Paul Schrimpf
Meister Media Worldwide

John Fulton, associate professor
The Ohio State University

Ariel Zajdband, head of product
Mavrx

Jeremy Wilson, farmer
Crop IMS LLC

Listen to the session here: ASTA CSS Digital Ag, Big Data session

2017 ASTA CSS and Seed Expo photo album

AgWired Precision, ASTA, Audio, data, Precision Agriculture, Seed

John Deere Connect Support Tool Receives Award

Carrie Muehling

The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) recently honored John Deere Connected Support – Expert Alerts with its AE50 Award for 2018. Expert Alerts helps producers to minimize downtime during their busiest seasons by predicting service needs and reducing diagnostic time using JDLink machine connectivity and data analytics. Customers and dealers can reduce service costs and experience fewer service interruptions when they use this technology.

“Expert Alerts provides remote machine monitoring and notification to John Deere dealers, which enables them to contact customers about an impending or potential issue, and often gives dealers solutions to resolve the issue,” said Jeremy Goebel, aftermarket product development manager for John Deere. “John Deere Connected Support tools enable dealers to proactively support customers, which results in customers experiencing less downtime, or sometimes avoid downtime altogether, leading to increased productivity and profitability.”

The AE50 award highlights the year’s most innovative designs in product engineering in the food and agriculture industry, as chosen by a panel of international engineering experts.

AgWired Precision, John Deere

FarmLead Launches GrainCents Advisory Service

Cindy Zimmerman

A new subscription service from FarmLead has been launched that can provides specific recommendations to farmers on when to sell, hold and/or hedge in various market conditions to improve balance sheets, operations, and grain marketing schedules.

The new service called GrainCents also educates farmers by providing expert insights on global market conditions and how they impact farm operations for specific crops.

GrainCents offers a cost-effective solution to make sense of what is really moving the markets for 12 crops grown in North America, including corn, soybeans, three wheat varieties, and canola. “Too often I hear about ‘just-in-time’ grain marketing; hoping and wishing for better prices,” FarmLead President & CEO Brennan Turner said. “We think that knowing the market you’re in, and the main factors influencing it, can generate a successful grain marketing plan.”

GrainCents is built on Turner’s accurate track record of 93% right calls of when to sell, hold or hedge grain over the past two years. The cost for the annual GrainCents subscription ranges from $250 to $450 per crop, and discounted packages for multiple crops are available.

For more information, visit: https://farmlead.com/graincents.

AgWired Precision, Grains, Markets