Zimfo Bytes

Kelly Marshall

  • College students with a passion for agriculture should register to be part of the Animal Agriculture Alliance’s 2017 College Aggies Online, a competition held each fall to encourage participants to share the story of agriculture.
  • The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced the fiscal year 2017 will include adjustments to the raw sugar market to increase the Overall Allotment Quality of domestic sugar, reassign the beet sugar marketing allotments among processors, reassign a surplus cane sugar marketing allotment, and increase U.S. raw sugar tariff-rate quota.
  • MGEX has announced multiple broken records for the month of July. Total volume for the month was the second best recorded in the history of the Exchange.
  • Rhea + Kaiser has promoted and added several staff members. Jack Vos moves to Vice President, Creative Director and Chris Oakland is now an Account Manager, AMP. Sara McClendon has joined R + K as an Account Manager, Public Relations and Sarah Sikorsky takes the position of Digital Media Coordinator.
  • This August the National Young Farmers Coalition is hosting the Young Farmers Roundtables to give young farmers the opportunity to communicate with members of the House Agriculture Committee. For further information please contact shelly@youngfarmers.org.

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Zimfo Bytes

AEM Honors Next-Generation Ag Engineers

Cindy Zimmerman

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) honored the latest winners of its agricultural engineering student achievement awards during the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers’ (ASABE) recent annual meeting.

ASABE engineering student branches receiving “AEM Trophy Awards” in 2017:
• First Place: Oklahoma State University
• Second Place: University of Wisconsin-Madison

AEM initiated the awards in the 1930s as part of its commitment to excellence in agricultural engineering education and to spotlight equipment manufacturing.

AEM, Agribusiness

Keynote for NAMA Fall Conference

Chuck Zimmerman

More and more details are coming out about this year’s National Agri-Marketing Association Fall Conference. Here’s an announcement on one of the keynote speakers.

Brian Carter is one of the fantastic keynote speakers that NAMA has lined up for Fall Conference this year. He will be presenting the first Keynote Session as well as the Pre-Conference Workshop on September 20.

Get a first look at his presentations in this promo video. We hope to see you all in Milwaukee!


Mark your calendars and register today to go Full Throttle with NAMA. Find out even more on the Fall Conference website. We hope to see you in Milwaukee!

NAMA

FMC Explains Fungicide Factors

Chuck Zimmerman

I’ve been learning a lot about fungicides lately and got another lesson with Brent Neuberger, FMC Senior Technical Sales Manager, during the Ag Media Summit. Brent starts out explaining that farmers are starting to see some issues in soybeans with frogeye leaf spot which even includes resistance to some of the strobilurin products. That’s why he says it’s very important to use a combination product like FMC’s Preemptor which contains a triazole along with a strobilurin. This provides a curative and a residual. Another product in this category is their Topguard EQ.

Brent also talks about what factors come into play when making a decision to treat with fungicides. He also mentions how many of the diseases needing treatment can exist in the soil even prior to planting due to different factors.

You can listen to my interview with Brent here: Interview with Brent Neuberger, FMC

View and download photos here: 2017 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Coverage of the Ag Media Summit is sponsored by
Coverage of the Ag Media Summit is sponsored by FMC
Ag Media Summit, Agribusiness, AgWired Precision, Audio, FMC, Fungicide

Seven Years of Finding CommonGround

Kelly Marshall

CommonGround is hosting their 7th annual National Conference in St. Louis, Missouri this week. Members of the organization, which focuses on providing an opportunity for conversations between consumers and farmers, are celebrating seven years of success and planning for the future of the program.

Joan Ruskamp is a CommonGround volunteer who has been part of the effort almost from the very beginning. “Someone else was telling my story,” Ruskamp says about her decision to join. So she attended the training and found ways to step up and tell that story herself.

“We stand on four pillars in the way we have our conversations,” Ruskamp explains. “We seek to be positive. We’re inclusive- so all forms of agriculture are supported and encouraged. We’re credible; we have a base of knowledge and experience to help us share our stories. And we’re real. We’re real women out on our farms and ranches living day-to-day the food production story.”

To date that message is making an impact. CommonGround has made millions of positive impressions in interviews, at events, and on social media platforms, and they’ve grown their own numbers from 14 farm women to more than 200.

Learn more about CommonGround and Joan’s story in my interview with her here: Interview with Joan Ruskamp, CommonGround

Audio, Conservation, Farming, Food

Precision Ag Bytes

Kelly Marshall

  • Farm Dog, the leading pest and disease management platform for growers and agronomists, has completed the second stage of its integration with John Deere Operations Center.
  • McFarlane will be adding a new model of Reel Disk, the Cobra. It features a unique set of disk blades and a highly aggressive cutting ability along with outstanding durability.
  • Agrible‘s Morning Farm Report will now include Drift Watch and BeeCheck from Field Watch, allowing growers and applicators to know the location of sensitive crops and beehives.
  • Last week, attendees at the National Corn Growers Association Corn Congress created a new policy that calls for faster access to new biotechnology-enhanced crop traits.
  • The biological crop inputs developer, Inocucor Corporation, will be opening a 30,000 square-foot headquarters and commercialization office in Centennial, Colorado.
  • Senet, a leading provider of global connectivity and network management for the Internet of Things, and Sensoterra BV, a leading provider of low-cost, wireless soil moisture measurement sensors are working on a multi-year partnership to operate Sensoterra’s soil moisture system on Senet’s standards-based IoT network.
  • Syngenta’s NK seeds portfolio is expanding in 2018 to include 31 new hybrids and 21 new varieties.
AgWired Precision, Precision Ag Bytes

John Deere Works for Ag Retailers

Cindy Zimmerman

Randy Kasperbauer and Chip Donahue at InfoAg

The ag retailers who supply products and services are the main point of contact between John Deere and the farmers who put them to work.

“They’re the ones that really serve the customer at the local level,” said Chip Donahue, manager of business segment strategy for Deere. He and colleague Randy Kasperbauer, product manager for the API platform, gave a presentation for retailers at the InfoAg Conference last week in St. Louis.

Kasperbauer says there are currently more than 80 commercial software companies integrated with the John Deere Operations Center. “And there’s upwards of a few hundred that are still exploring and evaluating the platform,” he said.

Listen to the interview and/or watch the Facebook Live video below.

Audio file: Interview with Chip Donahue and Randy Kasperbauer, John Deere

2017 InfoAg Conference Photo Album


Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by
Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by John Deere Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by CropTrak
AgWired Precision, Audio, Info Ag, John Deere, Video

Don Funk Relaunches Midwest Seed Genetics

Cindy Zimmerman

The founder of Channel Bio Corp is leading a team of entrepreneurs to relaunch Midwest Seed Genetics across the Corn Belt for the 2017/2018 growing season.

Don Funk acquired Midwest in 2001 and it was one of the regional brands under Channel Bio when it was purchased by Monsanto in 2004. He is re-acquiring the brand to provide “farmers meaningful choice in the dynamic future that awaits agriculture.”

“Over the last several years, we’ve been closely watching the seed industry, spending a great deal of time listening to both farmers and seed industry professionals,” says Funk. “While there is great excitement for what the future holds, there is also frustration and dissatisfaction. The people of agriculture are being left behind. We will put them first again.”

In preparation for the launch, Funk is assembling a core team to drive Midwest into the future. “We’re focused on people who share a great entrepreneurial spirit as well as a belief the seed industry is weighted down with inefficient practices. I’m excited to work with extremely capable people who are focused on bringing real value to farmers for decades to come.”

Learn more from Midwest Seed.

AgWired Precision, Seed

Ethanol Report on EPA Hearing and Court Decision

Cindy Zimmerman

Last week’s court decision on what EPA can consider when setting volume obligations for biofuels under the Renewable Fuel Standard was still fresh in mind as the industry provided feedback on the agency’s most recent proposals for next year during a public hearing in Washington D.C. this week.

In this edition of The Ethanol Report podcast, Renewable Fuels Association president and CEO Bob Dinneen talks about his testimony to EPA on the proposed RVOs under the RFS, and how the court ruling was a win for the industry. Ethanol Report on EPA Hearing and Court Decision

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS
Subscribe via iTunes

Audio, Ethanol, Podcasts, RFA

New from Case IH

Cindy Zimmerman

Case IH made a number of new product announcements for 2018 this week.

For starters, they launched the next generation of Maxxum series tractors that “combine efficient power, versatility, comfort and convenience to handle the day-to-day demands of beef, dairy and row crop operations.”

The 2018 line up includes Maxxum ActiveDrive 4, Maxxum ActiveDrive 8, and Maxxum CVXDrive tractor configurations that can be equipped to meet the needs of any operation.

The new Case IH Steiger CVXDrive series tractors with the strongest CVT on the market are available in 370 to 540 horsepower and in 17 different configurations in Quadtrac™, Rowtrac™, wheeled and scraper options.

The Steiger is the first continuously variable transmission to be offered in a 4WD articulated tractor and delivers the highest horsepower available on the market.

To top it off, Case IH launched the “industry’s fastest converting combination applicator” which converts from “liquid to dry in as little as 42 minutes.”

The Trident 5550 Liquid System offers the latest Case IH application technology, including AIM Command FLEX™ advanced spray technology and it’s engineered from the ground up to be changed from liquid to dry and back again throughout three seasons of use.

AgWired Animal, AgWired Precision, Case IH, Equipment, Tractor