Zimfo Bites 7/3
- Five county Farm Bureaus were selected from a competitive pool of applicants to each receive a $500 grant from the American Farm Bureau Women’s Leadership Program to help fund “Our Food Link” projects.
- The new Potato Expo Innovation Hub is now open and accepting abstract submissions for the Potato Expo 2018, which takes place January 10-12, 2018 at the Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Florida.
- CNH Industrial has launched a new online newsroom for the North American region for members of the press and news outlets to access information about CNH Industrial and five of its brands, Case IH, CASE Construction Equipment, New Holland Agriculture, New Holland Construction, and FPT Industrial.
- A new certification program funded by a USDA grant enables agricultural producers to let consumers know they are farming in ways that benefit bees. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation partnered with Oregon Tilth to develop and launch the Bee Better Certified program.
- A new collaborative effort between two of Indiana’s leading agricultural media organizations, Hoosier Ag Today and Farm World, is providing content now being delivered to thousands of Hoosier farmers daily with two e-newsletters.
- The bipartisan Agriculture Equipment and Machinery Depreciation Act has been introduced in the Senate to help farmers purchase new equipment and replace worn-out machinery by amending the U.S. tax code to permanently set a five-year depreciation schedule for certain agricultural equipment
- Wheat Growers cooperative has hired Todd Linbo as General Manager of the Wheat Growers Innovation Center. Linbo joins Wheat Growers from the John Deere Ag Division, Des Moines, Iowa, where he most recently was responsible for supply chain management and support of the John Deere application equipment product line.
SMART Farmer Jennifer Houston
This edition of the SMART Farmer podcast features Tennessee native Jennifer Houston, a livestock market owner and beef cattle industry leader, who talks about how the business of producing and marketing beef cattle has become smarter in recent years.
Houston is currently Vice President of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and serves on the board of the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA). She is also the mother of Virginia Houston with the American Seed Trade Association, who was featured in an interview from the recent ASTA annual meeting.
SMART Farmer Podcast with Jennifer Houston, NCBAAdapt-N® Integrates with John Deere API
Agronomic Technology Corp announces the integration between Adapt-N® and the John Deere Operations Center, which will make it even easier for farmers and agronomists to get Adapt-N’s leading nitrogen diagnostics and recommendations, and then apply them in the field using John Deere equipment.
“This integration expands our growing presence in the Precision Agriculture space and, more importantly, makes it easier for farmers to see the impact of different tillage, planting, and nutrient management approaches in their soil and with their weather,” said Steven Sibulkin, CEO of Agronomic Technology Corp, which operates Adapt-N.
The integration allows Adapt-N users to utilize the Operations Center to make more informed decisions that can drive yield, reduce costs, and improve nitrogen use efficiency.
Agronomic Technology Corp also provides N-Insight®, the “instant nitrogen diagnostic tool,” and other leading agricultural solutions that incorporate soil, weather, crop and field management modeling. Adapt-N has been proven to increase farmer profitability by $30 per acre through yield increases and nitrogen use efficiency. Adapt-N also plugs into leading third-party platforms, including SST Software, EFC Systems, Agrian, and others.
ZimmCast with ASTA Communications
A new week, a new ZimmCast episode, with Bethany Shively, Director of Communications, American Seed Trade Association (ASTA).
Cindy spoke with Bethany at the recent ASTA annual meeting. First up in the discussion is the Better Seed, Better Life program, an educational communications effort.
Another project they talk about is one involving the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival with an exhibit that focuses on the seed.
I hope you enjoy the program and thank you for listening!
Listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast with Bethany Shively, ASTA
Subscribe to the ZimmCast podcast here. Use this url in iTunes or your favorite news reader program/app.
The ZimmCast
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USDA Reports Record High Soybean Acreage, Corn Acres Down
The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is estimating a record high 89.5 million acres of soybeans planted in the U.S. for 2017. That’s up seven percent from last year. Corn acres are looking to be down about three percent.
All cotton acreage for 2017 is estimated at 12.1 million acres, 20 percent above last year, while all wheat planted area for 2017 is estimated at 45.7 million acres, down 9 percent from last year.
Brian Hoops of Midwest Market Solutions gave his commentary on the report during the Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGEX) crop call with reporters. Listen in to the call here: MGEX Crop Report Conference Call
You can find more information, including the quarterly stocks report from NASS online.
USDA & NCBA Celebrate U.S. Beef to China
U.S. Secretary of Ag Sonny Perdue (center) is joined by Craig Uden (left), president of the NCBA, and Luan Richeng (right), of state-owned Chinese importer COFCO.
U.S. Secretary of Ag Sonny Perdue joined National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) President Craig Uden for a ceremonial “Cutting of the Prime Rib.” The Nebraska prime rib formally marked the return of U.S. beef to the Chinese market after a 13-year hiatus as part of the U.S.-China 100-Day Action Plan announced by the Trump Administration. The first shipment of U.S. beef arrived in China on June 19, 2017.
“Beef is a big deal in China and I’m convinced that when the Chinese people get a taste of U.S. beef, they’re going to want more of it. These products coming into China are safe, wholesome, and very delicious. This is also a good harbinger of the kind of relationship that can be developed. We hope there are other things we can cooperate on and we’re going to use U.S. beef as the forerunner,” said Perdue.
“Regaining access to the world’s largest market is a huge step in the right direction,” Uden said. “But we still have a lot of work to do, like negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with Japan that puts us on even ground with our competitors, and ensuring that the renegotiation of NAFTA doesn’t mess up the great deal we’ve had with our consumers in Canada and Mexico for years.”
Quarterly Hogs & Pigs Report
The Pork Checkoff hosted the USDA’s Quarterly Hogs and Pigs Report on Thursday, June 29, 2017. This quarterly teleconference featured three agricultural economists and their reactions to the report.
Panelists included:
Dr. Lee Schulz, Extension Livestock Economist, Iowa State University
Dr. Scott Brown, Assistant Extension Professor, University of Missouri-Columbia
Joe Kerns, President, Kerns & Associates, Ames, IA
Reports seemed to follow in line with pre-report estimates. Dr. Brown said the stability when it came to sow numbers was maybe a sign of a plateau, yet still growing relative to a year ago.
Listen to the complete audio report here: USDA’s Quarterly Hogs and Pigs Report
Biodiesel Industry Considering Options Against Argentina
The U.S. biodiesel industry is considering legal options as imports of subsidized biodiesel have continued to increase since the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) Fair Trade Coalition filed an antidumping petition in March alleging that dumped biodiesel imports from Argentina and Indonesia have injured U.S. producers.
“What we’re seeing is a vast amount of imports continue to flood into our ports,” said NBB vice president of federal affairs Anne Steckel on behalf of the coalition. “We’ve received information of potentially 75 million gallons of biodiesel flooding our ports soon, a significant increase from the import levels we saw in January, February and March.”
Steckel says they are considering their legal options, which includes filing a “critical circumstances” request that allows the government to impose duties retroactively on imports reaching U.S. shores up to 90 days prior to the Department of Commerce’s preliminary determinations, which will not be until later this year. “We’re taking the appropriate legal steps to ensure that we have accurate duties put on those imports.”
Learn more about the situation and last week’s biodiesel industry congressional visits to discuss issues such as moving to a producer’s tax credit in this interview: Interview with Anne Steckel, NBB
Precision Bytes 6/30
- Jeff Morris is stepping into the role of vice president and chief marketing officer for AgJunction Inc., a leader in automated steering and machine control technology for precision agriculture. Morris will now be responsible for leading all marketing initiatives, developing go-to-market strategies and driving the product road map for AgJunction.
- Isagro USA, Inc. has signed an agreement to market Vestaron Corporation’s Spear®-T biological insecticide, an environmentally conscious choice for use on greenhouse pests.
- Live LoRaWAN internet connectivity will be provided at the InfoAg 2017 Conference coming up on July 25-27 in St. Louis, Missouri. Senet, the first and fastest growing provider of secure, public, low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs) and Managed Network Services for Internet of Things (IoT), is providing the service and will be speaking at the event as well.