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.
2017 Deer Hunt – John Deere Gator – Episode 2
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
Zimfo Bytes 12/8
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- 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.
Bayer Helps Fund ASTA Communications Efforts
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
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Digital Ag and Big Data
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
John Deere Connect Support Tool Receives Award
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.
FarmLead Launches GrainCents Advisory Service
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.
DuPont & Sumitomo’s Global Seed-Applied Tech Agreement
DuPont and Sumitomo Chemical Company, Limited announced a global agreement to collaborate on the development, registration and commercialization of seed-applied technologies for use in key crops around the world.
DuPont and Sumitomo Chemical formed this collaboration out of a shared objective to accelerate development and commercialization of novel seed-applied technologies to improve early plant growth and yields. The global agreement leverages the strengths of both companies, combining the conventional chemical and biological pipeline from Sumitomo Chemical, with the advanced seed technology and development and commercialization capability of DuPont Crop Protection, a business unit of DowDuPont Agriculture Division.
Collaborations between DuPont and Sumitomo Chemical’s regional affiliate, Valent U.S.A. LLC., will focus on the North American region with potential expansion opportunities to multiple crop markets globally.
During the American Seed Trade Association’s (ASTA) CSS & Seed Expo a press conference was held where Meg Brodman, Valent; Trey Soud, marketing director, row crops, Valent; and Mick Messman, director, DuPont Seed Applied Technologies spoke on the announcement.
Listen here: Dupont/Sumitomo Press Conference
2018 Agricultural Economy Themes
A highlight for all who attended the American Seed Trade Association’s (ASTA) CSS & Seed Expo is an agricultural economy report from Dan Basse, AgResource. Back by popular demand, Basse took us through the 2018 economic themes he forecasts we will see in agriculture.
“Generally speaking, it looks to be another year like the last one. We are thinking farming can be somewhere around $58-59 billion for the year ahead. We say that because one of the things that will change this year will be the ARC payment. It will come down because we excluded 2012,” Basse said.
As we know, the farm bill is still being written so Basse said we could see some afterthoughts beyond 2019. However, the price of corn, soybeans and wheat won’t change much.
Trade continues to sit center-stage for agriculture and the seed industry is keeping their ear to the ground when it comes to NAFTA renegotiations. Basse said the two commodities that would be impacted the most would be corn and pork.
In preparation for the 2018 growing season, Basse said “I want farmers to think ahead to not only the crop they have in their bins but think ahead to 2018, 2019 corn and soybeans. We have profitable landscape prices to lock in going forward. We want farmers to think ahead particularly if there is a weather problem in South America and what they need to be doing in the marketplace for the next three years.”
Listen to our complete conversation as Basse summarizes his outlook for 2018. Interview with Dan Basse, AgResource
Dan Basse, Ag Resource, presentation
ASTA Announces Student Video Awards
ASTA CEO Andy LaVigne; Katelyn Fritz; and Susan Chapman, Tri-Societies
Sponsored by the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA), the National Association of Plant Breeders (NAPB), and the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America and Soil Science Society of America (Tri-Societies), the contest asked graduate and undergraduate students focusing on plant-science disciplines to submit videos bringing plant breeding innovation to life.
The winning video was produced by Katelyn Fritz of Iowa State University. As a junior double majoring in Agronomy and Global Resource Systems with focus areas of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology as well as Central America, Katelyn is on an eight-month internship in Guatemala with a small NGO named Semilla Nueva that works to sustainably overcome chronic malnutrition in Guatemala through biofortified corn.
Learn more about her enthusiasm about life and seed in this interview: Interview with Katelyn Fritz, ASTA Better Seed Better Life video winner
2017 ASTA CSS and Seed Expo photo album