Meet the North American #YouthAgSummit Delegates

Jamie Johansen

North America was represented by nine young agricultural minds at the 3rd Youth Ag Summit held in Brussels, Belgium. The North American delegates along with 91 of their international peers joined forces to talk about change for a better future.

Bayer Crop Science has a continued focus on feeding a growing world sustainably and organized the conference enabling youth to take the conversation further. I was able to sit down with four of the nine to learn more about their ideas for change and what ‘3 Little Things’ they have created to help put those ideas into action.

U.S. Delegates:
Benjamin Carson – Interview with Ben Carson

Emily Buck – Interview with Emily Buck

Noah Hamlish – Interview with Noah Hamlish

Canadian Delegate:
Brandon Hebor – Interview with Brandon Hebor

View and download photos from the event here: 2017 Youth Ag Summit Photo Album

Audio, Bayer

SMART Farmer Rochelle Krusemark

Cindy Zimmerman

Rochelle Krusemark is a Minnesota grain and soybean farmer, a state and national soybean board and USFRA board member, wife, mother and grandmother – all at the same time!

Obviously a busy lady, Rochelle squeezed in time as she was watching her two toddler grandsons to tell us what being a SMART farmer means to her, and why she is so passionate about education about agriculture. A former teacher herself, Rochelle has been a longtime advocate of the Ag in the Classroom program and has worked with Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council (MSR&PC) and the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) start a program to help urban teachers learn more about agriculture so they can teach it to their students.

Listen to Rochelle here – SMART Farmer Podcast with Rochelle Krusemark, MN farmer

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Learn more about USFRA and SMART Farm

AgWired Animal, AgWired Precision, Audio, Podcasts, Soybean, USFRA

New Growth Energy Podcast

Cindy Zimmerman

Growth Energy has launched a new monthly podcast discussing the latest developments in the ethanol industry.

In this first edition, Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor discusses this very exciting week that has seen the biofuels industry unite, led by champions in the Senate and state governors, to get the attention of the White House and defend the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). She says the response to the pressure by EPA administrator Scott Pruitt in the form of a letter to senators he met with this week on the issue, is very encouraging. “I look forward to the promises becoming policy,” said Skor. “There have been commitments made so we look for the final renewable volume obligations to come out at the end of November and we see this in writing we will all be able to breathe a sign of relief.”

Skor also comments on the Ethanol Summit of the Americas held in Houston this week that brought together industry and government officials from more than 15 countries in the Western Hemisphere to discuss current and future opportunities for ethanol in the region.

Listen to the podcast here: Growth Energy Podcast 10-20-17

Stay tuned for subscription details!

Audio, Ethanol

Animal Ag Bites 10/23

Kelly Marshall

  • The Allflex Group is proud to announce that two SCR products were awarded innovation honors at the World Dairy Expo earlier this month. The SenseTime cloud-based electronic cow monitoring system and the eSense ear tag were both named as winners in the 2017 Dairy Herd Management Innovation Awards – World Dairy Expo Edition.
  • The Pork Checkoff has a new partnership with Yummly, a leading recipe app and website.  The agreement means Pork Board’s more than 2,100 recipes will be placed in front of Yummly’s more than 23 million registered users.
  • Craig Morris, Ph.D. is the New Vice President of International Marketing for the National Pork Board.  Morris has been serving as the Deputy Administrator over the Livestock, Poultry and Seed Program of the Agricultural Marketing Service at the USDA.
  • Kenny Miller has been promoted to chief financial officer at the American Angus Association.  He replaces Rich Wilson who served as CFO for 48 years.
AgWired Animal, Animal Bites

Agrikua’s Gender Equality Project = 1st at #YouthAgSummit

Jamie Johansen

Last week, I was given the opportunity to attend the 2017 Youth Ag Summit organized by Bayer Crop Science. Never have I ever attended such a motivating and uplifting agricultural event. One hundred young people, aged 18-25, gathered in Brussels, Belgium to tackle some of the world’s top issues in agriculture.

During the Summit, delegates worked in groups of ten to develop their ideas centered around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of Gender Equality, Quality Education, and Responsible Consumption and Production. Groups pitched to a jury of experts and the audience. Winners were selected based on feasibility, innovativeness, and creativity. Bayer will be funding the top three future projects developed.

– Third place went to “Imperfect Picks”, a group who was assigned to work on SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. These delegates impressed with their cartoon campaign to promote “ugly fruits” to children and enable a broader cultural shift towards accepting food that appears blemished but is still of good quality. They won €3,000 to further develop and implement their project.
– Second place went to “Seeds of Change”, a group of delegates focusing on SDG 4: Quality Education. They will use their prize of €5,000 to fund a project aimed at promoting agriculture in schools through young agricultural champions, in order to bridge the disconnect between people who consume, and people who produce food.
– First place was awarded to the group “AGRIKUA” (“kua” being the Swahili word for “grow”), whose project focuses on promoting Gender Equality (SDG 5) in the agricultural sector. Their plan to create an online professional platform for young Kenyan women seeking opportunities in agriculture impressed the jury and audience alike, and they took home the grand prize of €10,000. On top of this funding, the AGRIKUA delegates will also receive dedicated training and coaching to help make the project a reality. They will also be invited back to Europe to present their project to a relevant industry platform.

I was able to speak to the Agrikua spokespeople following the announcement to dive deeper into their project and hear their enthusiasm. Listen here: Interview with Agrikua

View and download photos from the event here: 2017 Youth Ag Summit Photo Album

Agribusiness, AgWired Animal, AgWired Precision, Audio, Bayer

Zimfo Bytes 10/20

Kelly Marshall

  • National Corn Growers Association will accept online harvest forms for the 2017 National Corn Yield Contest until Friday, December 1 at 4:30 pm CST.  Registration needs to be completed within two weeks of the final yield check or December 1, whichever comes first.
  • DTN/The Progressive Farmer took home three awards from this year’s 2017 Folio: Eddie and Ozzie Awards last week in New York City.  Two Eddies were received for articles written and one Ozzie was earned for a B2B Feature Design.
  • The National Farmers Union (NFU) has awarded Spring Vasey of Delaware the Hubert K. & JoAnn Seymour Scholarship, a $2,000 award given for dedication and commitment to the NFU. Caitlyn Becker, Jaclynn Knutson, and Jane Umbriaco earned the Stanely Moore Scholarship.
  • The winner of the Borlaug CAST Communication Award (BCCA) was honored at a World Food Prize side event. Jayson Lusk presented an insightful keynote address about The Future of Food. 
Zimfo Bytes

Riding & Driving a John Deere Gator at Sunbelt Ag Expo

Chuck Zimmerman

At this year’s Sunbelt Ag Expo, John Deere held a ride and drive of their new line of Gator XUVs for the first time. Before I get to the new line of XUVs let me explain the photo. In the photo is a model 825i that I will be test driving at my deer hunting camp this fall to get a real feel for how well these vehicles work for outdoor trail/hunting applications. I will be writing about the experience periodically. After I left Sunbelt Ag Expo my brother and hunt partner Paul and I picked up the vehicle from Blanchard Equipment in Tennille, GA. We’ve already taken it for a short drive on a new fire trail and it is comfortable!

Now back to my ride/drive at Sunbelt Ag Expo. I rode with Mike Ballou and had him explain the features of the new line of utility vehicles which were first introduced at the Farm Progress Show.

Mike drove an XUV865R unit while I held the camera (iPhone 8). The 865R is a top of the line XUV with a full cab and now includes air conditioning. We were riding on a very dry, warm, dusty and windy day but were very comfortable in the cab. You can find a full list of features and specifications here.

So, ride along in the video below.


2017 Sunbelt Ag Expo Photo Album

Stories from Sunbelt Ag Expo sponsored by Stories from Sunbelt Ag Expo sponsored by John Deere
John Deere, Sunbelt Ag Expo, Video

EPA Administrator Backs Down on RFS Proposal

Cindy Zimmerman

All the noise made this week by biofuels supporters over proposed volume reductions under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) has apparently made an impression. In a letter to seven senators sent late Thursday, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt committed to final 2018 RFS renewable volume obligations “at levels equal or greater” to those that the agency proposed in July, as well as a commitment to finalize the rule by the Nov. 30 statutory deadline. In the letter, Pruitt also announced EPA will finalize a decision within the next 30 days to deny a change to the point of obligation for compliance with the RFS, the agency will “actively explore” whether it has the legal authority to approve year-round access to E15 and the agency will not take action on a rumored proposal to allow ethanol exports to count towards RFS compliance. “The U.S. ethanol industry is grateful for Administrator Pruitt’s epiphany on the road to the RFS,” said Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) president and CEO Bob Dinneen.

With the deadline this week to comment on EPA’s recent Notice of Data Availability that would further lower biofuels volume levels under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), industry supporters increased pressure on the agency to uphold President Trump’s campaign promises.

In this edition of the Ethanol Report podcast recorded prior to Pruitt’s letter, Dinneen discusses how industry supporters responded to recent EPA actions and what EPA should be doing, talks about a new report on RINS and retail fuel prices, and provides RFA’s comments on the EPA notice: Ethanol Report on EPA pressure

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Audio, Ethanol, Podcasts, RFA

Deere Wins Fight to Protect Green and Yellow

Cindy Zimmerman

It’s not easy being John Deere green and yellow – especially if you are another equipment manufacturer.

A U.‍S. District Court in Kentucky this week ruled in favor of Deere & Company protecting the use of the trademark green and yellow color combination on John Deere agricultural equipment. The court decision permanently bans the use of the John Deere colors by FIMCO, Inc., a South Dakota company that manufactures and markets agricultural sprayers under the “Ag Spray Equipment” brand name.

The lawsuit asserted that FIMCO’s green and yellow equipment infringed on Deere’s trademark for the color combination. Deere also claimed that use of the colors by another manufacturer confuses the public as to where the product originated and dilutes the value of the John Deere brand.

The court ruled that John Deere’s green and yellow color combination qualified as a “famous” trademark since as early as the late 1960s and that FIMCO intentionally chose green and yellow to create an association with the John Deere brand. The court also found that FIMCO’s use of green and yellow was likely to cause confusion among purchasers as to whether its agricultural equipment was manufactured by or endorsed by John Deere.

AgWired Precision, John Deere

GAP Report Says Ag Productivity Growth Too Slow

Cindy Zimmerman

The Global Harvest Initiative 2017 GAP report was released Wednesday at the World Food Prize symposium in Des Moines, and for the fourth straight year it shows that global agricultural productivity growth is not accelerating fast enough to sustainably feed the world in 2050.

“If agricultural productivity growth continues to decline, there will be significant ramifications for the economic vitality and environmental sustainability of food and agriculture systems. Farmers in low-income, food-deficit countries will use more land and water to increase their output, straining a natural resource base already threatened by extreme weather events and climate change,” said Margaret Zeigler, executive director of GHI.

The report finds the rate of agricultural productivity growth for low-income countries is only 1.24 percent annually – a decline from 1.5 percent in 2015 and 1.31 percent in 2016. GHI says global agricultural productivity must increase by 1.75 percent annually to meet the demands of nearly 10 billion people in 2050.

Doyle Karr, DuPont Biotechnology Public Policy director and chair of the GHI Board of Directors, says U.S. farmers are concerned about a number of issues that could impact their productivity, including consumer concerns about food production. “The global agriculture sector must renew our commitment to engage in dialogue with consumers through active conversation and collaboration. Farmers and consumers share the same goals, but often there is an information gap between them,” said Karr.

AgWired Precision, Food, World Food Prize