E15 Goes on Summer Break

Cindy Zimmerman

It’s June 1st, which means the kids are out of school, the pools are open, and E15 pumps in two-thirds of the nation are shutting down.

Today marks the official beginning of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “summer ozone control season,” and according to the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), is the result of “an arbitrary, decades-old EPA regulation that protects the status quo and denies consumers year-round access to a fuel that is cheaper, cleaner, and offers higher octane than today’s gasoline.”

Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) introduced legislation earlier this year to extend the RVP waiver to E15 and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is expected to hold a hearing this month on the legislation.

“We applaud the Senate co-sponsors of this legislation for getting this bill on the agenda this summer, and we ask Senators to back this common-sense solution,” said National Corn Growers Association Ethanol Action Team Chair Paul Jeschke of Illinois. “The RVP issue is a significant hurdle to expanding consumer access to higher ethanol blends. Congress should step up and remove this barrier so consumers can have more choice, and more savings, at the pump all year long.”

The Senate bill is co-sponsored by Joe Donnelly (D-IN) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), while Reps. Adrian Smith (R-NE) and David Loebsack (D-IA) have introduced the House bill.

Corn, Ethanol, NCGA, RFA

Iowa Gov and Ag Groups to Make China Trip

Cindy Zimmerman

Iowa’s new governor and the state’s agricultural organizations miss Terry Branstad so much that they are already planning a trip to see him in China.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds will lead an all-Iowa agriculture trade mission to China July 19-28 with representatives from the state’s corn, pork, soy, beef, egg, poultry, dairy and turkey industries. The trip marks the first time all of Iowa’s farm groups have come together for a trade mission which will be jointly funded by the participating organizations.

“There is no better time than now to market and pitch our products in China,” said Reynolds. “Our relationship with the country is strong, and their growing middle class means increasing purchasing power and Iowa stands to gain significantly as a result.”

The goal of the mission is to build relationships, understanding and trust with the hope of opening new possibilities for Iowa’s agricultural products. The groups will be meeting with government officials and industry partners. Reynolds says they will be visiting Ambassador Terry Branstad in Beijing, whose insight will be important as the groups navigate solutions to some of the current issues.

China currently accounts for 60 percent of global soybean imports – and growing. “It’s a vital market and an historic trip,” said Iowa Soybean Association CEO Kirk Leeds. “Relationships matter for the Chinese. Rarely do they do business with people they don’t know.”

China was the second-largest purchaser of U.S. ethanol last marketing year and a major buyer of U.S. distiller’s dried grains (DDGS), but because of Chinese antidumping and countervailing duties investigations, U.S. DDGS entering China now face duties of over 90 percent, and China has not approved any corn products derived from biotechnology since December 2014. “This has created market access challenges for corn exporters and restricted farmers’ access to new technologies,” said Iowa Corn CEO Craig Floss.

China is the second largest export market for U.S. pork producers but imports of U.S. beef have been banned for 13 years, so cattle producers are optimistic about the opportunities with the recent announcement to lift the ban.

Reynolds made the announcement Tuesday during her first weekly press conference as governor, joined by Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg, Iowa Corn CEO Craig Floss, ISA CEO Kirk Leeds, and Iowa Cattlemen’s CEO Matt Deppe. Listen to the announcement here: IA Gov China Trip Press Conference

Ag Groups, AgWired Animal, AgWired Precision, Audio, Beef, Corn, Ethanol, Pork, Soybean

Growing Up Lyons

Cindy Zimmerman

Dr. Mark Lyons and Dr. Pearse Lyons at Alltech ONE 17

Dr. Mark Lyons was a young boy in 1980 when his father, Dr. Pearse Lyons, started Alltech with an investment of $10,000. Today, the global animal health company employs more than 4700 people with a presence in 128 countries, including the rapidly growing Chinese market where Mark is based as global vice president for the company.

The youngest Dr. Lyons says he definitely thought about pursuing a career outside his father’s company, but it was the beer that changed his mind. “We started in the ethanol industry and got into agriculture,” but Mark says the beer came about because after graduating from the University of Chicago his father bought the local 200-year-old Lexington Brewing Company that was closing and urged Mark to go study brewing in Scotland. “And that’s how we actually started with Kentucky Ale, so I headed off to Scotland with a beer to brew,” he said.

That was 1999 and Alltech Lexington Brewing & Distilling Co. has since become a producer of the Kentucky Ale family of award-wining beers and spirits and is one of the few joint brewing and distilling operations in the world. In 2012, the company became part of the famous Kentucky Bourbon Trail® when it opened its Town Branch Distillery, which produces Town Branch® Bourbon, Pearse Lyons Reserve® and Bluegrass Sundown®.

This was my first year to attend the Alltech ONE symposium, even though AgWired has been there since 2008, and it was the first time I had met any of the Dr. Lyons’s so in the short five minutes I had to chat with Mark I really wanted to know what it was like growing up with a disruptor like his father: Interview with Dr. Mark Lyons, Alltech

Mark’s topic at the Alltech symposium was Meeting the Demands of the “Rising Billion” – Dr. Mark Lyons, Alltech 2017 presentation

Alltech ONE17 Photo Album

Alltech, Audio

Another NAMA 60 Year Perspective

Cindy Zimmerman

Another active member of the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) who has been around for at least two-thirds of the organization’s 60 years is Carroll Merry of Countryside Marketing.

Carroll has been a member of NAMA since November 1976 and in our reminiscing interview he talks about how NAMA started – and definitively solves the question of how it should be pronouced.

Listen to my interview with Carroll here: Interview with Carroll Merry, Countryside Marketing
2017 Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

Coverage of the 2017 Agri-Marketing Conference is sponsored by
Coverage of the 2017 Agri-Marketing Conference is sponsored by SageCoverage of the 2017 Agri-Marketing Conference is sponsored by USFRA
Audio, NAMA, Uncategorized

MagGrow Brings Innovation to Crop Protection

Kelly Marshall

After three years of developing products, founding member and CEO of MagGrow, Gary Wickham became part of the Pearse Lyons Accelerator just as they were ready to bring their solutions to growers.

It was Wickham’s brother who discovered the need that was the mother of this invention. While working in Florida he saw serious flaws with pesticide spray. As a chemist, Wickham looked at the problem and developed a magnetic technology to solve it.

“Conventional technology tries to control drift, but can’t achieve good coverage and get the product to the crop- it can’t do both,” Wickham points out. “Seventy percent of what they spray is wasted. It goes into the rivers and streams. We stop all that from happening. We reduce that waste to less than 10 percent by passing the fluid through magnetic systems and basically making it easier for the drop to detach to the crop. So growers now have a solution to control drift and also get better coverage, which means they’ll have good yields and be using less to grow more.”

Learn more about MagGrow in Jamie’s full interview here: Interview with Gary Wickham, MagGrow

Alltech ONE17 Photo Album

Agribusiness, AgWired Precision, Alltech, Audio, Crop Protection

American Ethanol Driver Earns NASCAR Win

Cindy Zimmerman

The No. 3 Chevrolet owned by Austin Dillon’s grandfather, Richard Childress, returned to Victory Lane during the Coca-Cola 600 for the first time since the late Dale Earnhardt won his last race on Oct. 15, 2000 at Talladega.

It was the first career Monster Energy Series win for Dillon, who races the No. 3 Dow/American Ethanol/AAA Chevrolet SS team car, and the seventh year the NASCAR series has been powered by Sunoco Green E15. Dillon thanked “those partners that were here from the very beginning – Dow, American Ethanol – it feels so good to deliver. They had to believe in me no matter what.”

The American Ethanol partnership, which includes Growth Energy and the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), sponsored the 2014 return of the No. 3 car owned by Richard Childress Racing (RCR). “This is an incredible victory for the No. 3 team, and the entire American Ethanol family is filled with pride – we knew this day would come,” said Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor.

“NCGA is obviously thrilled by the win because it further validates the abilities of ethanol fuel on the road and on the track. Specifically, it provides great positive exposure for E15 at a time when the fuel is beginning to make significant gains in consumer retail space, said Paul Jeschke of Illinois who serves as chairman of NCGA’s Ethanol Action Team.

The No. 3 was not wearing the American Ethanol paint out for the Charlotte race but it is featured at six races during the year with the next one being the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach on July 1.

Corn, Ethanol, NASCAR

Diamandis Receives Alltech Humanitarian Award

Cindy Zimmerman

ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference last week featured 70 speakers, including the brightest international minds in science, agriculture, technology and business.

Peter Diamandis, founder of the XPRIZE Foundation and co-founder of Singularity University, addressed attendees on disruptive innovations, highlighting that the only constant is change, and the rate of change is increasing.

“To stay ahead in any industry, companies and entrepreneurs must think in an exponential way, as it’s exponential technology that will transform every industry,” he said.

Alltech founder Dr. Pearse Lyons presented Diamandis with the Alltech Humanitarian Award, which is given each year to “someone of strong character who uses their accomplishments to positively influence and inspire other people.”

The 33rd annual Alltech symposium attracted approximately 4,000 attendees from nearly 80 countries across the globe.

Alltech ONE17 Photo Album

Alltech

Bringing Smart Farming to Aquaculture

Lizzy Schultz

Farmers across the livestock production sectors have begun to have increased access to smart farming technology on their operations, including the booming global aquaculture industry. Rully Setya Purnama is the Chief Operating Officer of eFishery, a company offering integrated feeding solution for fish and shrimp farming that allows operators to control their fish/shrimp feeding performance directly from a smartphone or laptop, anytime and anywhere. He sat down with Jamie Johansen at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference, where he finished up his participation with the Pearse Lyons Accelerator Program, to talk about eFishery’s innovations and how they are revolutionizing the Asian fish market.

“Our technology uses sensors that can monitor the appetite of fish and shrimp in real-time and report data back to operators, making feeding more efficient, reducing feeding costs up to 31% and boosting profits up to 100%,” said Purnama. “And it’s all connected to the cloud, so every farmer can access their business remotely, anytime and anywhere.”

Alltech has opened global opportunities for eFishery, and the company is currently operating in the world’s six largest aquaculture producers: Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, China, and India. Purnama hopes to continue expanding the company throughout the large Asian fish market and, eventually, throughout the entire global market.

Listen to Jamie’s full interview with Rully here:
Interview with Rully Setya Purnama, eFishery

Download photos from the event here:
Alltech ONE17 Photo Album

Agribusiness, AgWired Animal, Alltech, Aquaculture, Audio, Feed

SkySquirrel Leaps Ahead in Aerial Imaging

Kelly Marshall

When Richard van der Put looked at the potential for his drone company, SkySquirrel Technologies, he found a niche in vineyards, but he also found a niche with his software.

“What you see in the market is, obviously, drones are being utilized more and more by farmers, but all of our competitors are basically using the same technology on the imagining side,” van der Put explains. “They give a generic health product that can tell you a bit of information about whether you have a problem or not in the field, but its not specific to what problem that is.”

SkySquirrel’s program, developed by a team member at NASA, gives very specific disease detection information, helping growers better understand the issues. One farmer in Chile, for example, was able to correct a soil companion issue, earning him big returns.

Working with the Pearse Lyons Accelerator program at Alltech has been a big help to this start-up company, and to vineyards globally. “They have a very good view of how the process works,” van der Put says of their expertise in sales.

Listen to more about SkySquirrel Technologies in Jamie’s interview here: Interview with Richard van der Put, SkySquirrel Technologies

Alltech ONE17 Photo Album

Agribusiness, AgWired Precision, Alltech, Audio

Season of 7 Billion Hot Dogs Begins

Jamie Johansen

The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (NHDSC) estimates that Americans will eat 7 billion hot dogs during this year’s grilling season which runs from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day. That’s 818 hot dogs per second and more than a third of the hot dogs eaten per year.

New research commissioned by the NHDSC and conducted online by Harris Poll finds that 72 percent of Americans say that the true ingredients of a hot dog are a mystery to them despite popularity and that ingredients are listed on package.

The same research found on average Americans estimate that a standard hot dog contains 210 calories, while 41 percent of Americans say that they do not know. While calories vary by brand, USDA says the average standard beef hot dog contains just 154 calories.

The NHDSC has developed several resources to help address these misperceptions. A recently released guide to hot dog ingredients allows people to search for the ingredients listed on a hot dog package and learn more about what those ingredients are and why they are used. A new hot dog and sausage nutrition guide will debut this summer and here’s a video showing the full process of how hot dogs are made.


AgWired Animal, Food