Vilsack’s New Job is Official

Cindy Zimmerman

With the inauguration of President Trump just days away, the Cabinet position of Agriculture Secretary remains vacant but former Secretary Tom Vilsack has already moved on and will be taking a new job as president and CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Council on February 1.

“Growing the global market for U.S. dairy products is essential to the future of the dairy industry and America’s dairy farmers. I’ve spent my career in public service as a tireless advocate for farmers and American agriculture and can think of no better way to continue this service than by leading the U.S. Dairy Export Council,” said Vilsack. “I look forward to partnering with the dynamic team at USDEC as well as agriculture, food industry and key stakeholders at home and abroad to advance the council’s mission and strengthen trust in American dairy.”

As president and CEO, Vilsack will provide strategic leadership and oversight of USDEC’s global promotional and research activities, regulatory affairs and trade policy initiatives. This includes working with industry leaders to develop a long-term vision for building sales and consumer trust in U.S. dairy. Together with the USDEC board, he will create strategies to successfully achieve the shared vision. He will serve as the organization’s primary spokesperson and ambassador to a host of global and domestic stakeholders.

Vilsack succeeds Tom Suber, who served as president of USDEC since its founding in 1995, and retired at the end of 2016. USDEC is a non-profit, independent organization that seeks to enhance the global demand for U.S. dairy products and ingredients.

Agribusiness, Dairy

CNH Industrial Names Danford to New Position

Cindy Zimmerman

CNH Industrial has named Dan Danford to the new position of Industry Relations Manager, Precision Solutions and Telematics (PS&T). CNH Industrial is the parent company of Case IH and New Holland Agriculture and Construction brands.

Danford will represent the interests and global strategic direction of CNH Industrial with key precision-facing organizations and partners, with an emphasis in North America and South America.

“Dan’s experience and connections throughout the industry will help us be a stronger voice in, and a more agile contributor to the precision industry,” said Joe Michaels, Director of Global Precision Product Management with CNH Industrial. “Greater agility means we can deliver ever more integrated data solutions to our customers in a shorter time frame.”

Danford joined CNH Industrial in 2012 as Public Relations and Sponsorship Manager for Case IH Agriculture in North America and has been involved in agribusiness marketing and communications for over 20 years.

Agribusiness, Marketing

New Offerings for Specialty Crops from John Deere

Kelly Marshall

John Deere has something new up its sleeve again. Carl Weidemeier attended the Potato Expo in San Fransisco to show growers the latest offering for specialty crops.

Beginning in the spring of 2017 growers will be able to connect their third party yield monitors to the My John Deere platform. A harness converts the message from the third party monitor and converts it to talk to the John Deere system, allowing information to be documented on maps and uploaded to the cloud.

“Now they can login to one account and look at everything. A lot of these guys rotate through crops, so all their fields, including potatoes, can be in My John Deere, which is big for them.”

Specialty crop growers will be able to use this technology for harvest this year by stopping into their local John Deere dealership. The process of installing the harness insn’t complicated or labor intensive, but it can take a little planning to find the right connections for the specific monitor, Weidemeier explains, so a dealer can handle that.

Check out the full interview here:Interview with Carl Weidemeier, John Deere

2017 Potato Expo photos

Coverage of the Potato Expo is sponsored by Coverage of Potato Expo is sponsored by Nufarm
Audio, John Deere, Potato

Nufarm Seeing Results in Citrus Greening

Kelly Marshall

The Potato Expo in San Fansisco earlier this month gave Chuck Zimmerman a chance to talk to Nufarm Manager of Tech Services, Alan Haack about an issue affecting the home state of AgWired’s world headquarters. Citrus greening has devastated the citrus industry of Florida, affecting half of the state’s fruit production. Last year the Florida Commissioner of Agriculture declared a crisis and allowed the use of several products, including Nufarm’s Oxytetracycline Calcium Complex– Mycoshield. Now just shy of one year of use, Chuck was able to get the latest on efforts to curb the disease.

There hasn’t been a cure for the disease, which Haack likens to cancer. It can be in a tree for 3 to 5 years, maybe even just a branch, and not show signs, all the while spreading the bacterium. “Now with this product they’re seeing very positive results in extending the production of the current trees,” he tells Chuck.

That’s a huge step, considering trees can take 5 or 6 years to get back into production. Maintaining those trees instead of loosing them has great benefits to growers. Mycoshield could also have great benefits to the citrus industries in other states as well. Currently Nufarm is working with the state of Texas, which as seen a small outbreak of the disease, and California to prevent problems before they start.

To hear the latest for yourself, listen to the full interview here: Interview with Alan Haack, Nufarm

2017 Potato Expo photos

Coverage of the Potato Expo is sponsored by Coverage of Potato Expo is sponsored by Nufarm
Audio, Citrus, Nufarm

Zimfo Bytes

Lizzy Schultz

Zimfo Bytes

  • The early bird deadline to register for the IFAJ International Congress in South Africa is coming up! Register by January 17, 2017 to receive the early bird rate and save!
  • The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has announced the allocation of $540,000 in available funding for State and regional projects that will work to provide education, assistive technology and other support to current and prospective farmers and ranchers with disabilities.
  • Red Barn Media Group recently added Marilyn Cummins to its full-time staff as Associate Editor. Cummins offers more than 30 years of experience in 3publishing and marketing communications and the ability to provide top-notch editorial content across all platforms.
  • The Farm Credit Council (FCC) has announced a new Washington, D.C.-based communications team, including the hires of John Pulley as Vice President of Strategic Communications, Mark Hayes as Director of Media Relations and China Riddle as Digital Communications Manager.
Zimfo Bytes

Buds and Pods Part One

Chuck Zimmerman

Hello. @AgriBlogger here with an AgNerd review series. It’s is in two parts. This one focuses on the Etymōtic HD Safety Earphones, specifically the HD5 model. Part two will focus on the new Apple AirPods.

My trip to Potato Expo last week was a test run to switch between the Etymōtic HD5 earphones and AirPods. Etymōtic sent me the HD5 model for the test. It is one of the products they make specifically for hearing safety. I know how loud environments can be for farmers and these products do a very good job of cutting down on noise while allowing you to listen to farm podcasts or music from your phone.

Etymotic manufactures three hearing safety products for the farming community:

  • HD•Safety™ earplugs
  • HD•Safety™ Earplugs + Earphones
  • HD•15® Electronic Earplugs

Etymotic’s safety line of earplugs and earphones reduce the risk of noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus. Used for years by musicians and others exposed to high sound levels, these products are now being highlighted as essential equipment for farmers.

The company claims that these earplugs protect from loud sounds while still allowing safe sounds to pass through. They also claim they feel like there is nothing in the ears. So, let’s start there. I used the foam plugs which inserted very easily and were very comfortable. The fit securely and the kit comes with different sizes and type of plugs.

I wore these on the plane which I figured would be a good test for them. It is amazing how well they filter out sound without expensive sound cancelling technology. Even after wearing them for hours my ears were not at all “weary” of the wear. For you farm podcasters out there, consider a small set of earphones like these for a noisy media room!
Read More

Gadgets

Senate Resolution Against WOTUS Introduced

Kelly Marshall

U.S. Senators Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) have introduced a resolution to vacate the “Waters of the United States” rule– a resolution that signifies their intent to roll back the rule once President-elect Trump takes office. The resolution makes clear that the Clean Water Act (CWA) is vital to protecting American resources, but WOTUS takes it too far.

“We all want clean air and clean water, but the federal overreach we saw with the WOTUS rule was completely unprecedented,” said Senator Fischer. “This rule would hurt all Nebraskans: families, communities, ag producers, and businesses. This resolution signifies our intent to quickly get to work to stop WOTUS in its tracks once the new administration takes office.”

“I’ve heard from farmers, manufacturers, and small business owners across the state of Iowa about the confusion and burdensome red-tape the expanded WOTUS rule creates, and the urgency for it to be scrapped immediately,” said Senator Ernst. “That’s why I led an effort in 2015 to disapprove this rule. It is imperative we relieve hard-working Americans from this power grab, and allow Iowans to care for their land without the heavy hand of the EPA determining their every move. Today’s action reaffirms that Iowans’ voice will be heard in Washington and stresses the need to protect our rural communities from this federal overreach.”

Water

Inviting Your Feedback on the AgWired Audience

Chuck Zimmerman

Howdy AgWired Tribe. I’ve got a question. How do I show an advertising agency or company who our audience is? Some want numbers and demographics in order to utilize us in a marketing campaign. Whether you are a farmer or work for agribusiness or an agency I’m interested in your thoughts and ideas on this.

Many of you have been following AgWired since the beginning and are a part of why this little old ag newsy blog has been such a success. I hope we’ve been able to provide you with good and entertaining information using new channels that allow you to get our content whenever, wherever and how ever you want it. My goal from the beginning was to use new media channels without barriers such as a form to fill out.

We did not accept advertising for the first couple years here on the website since I wanted to make sure this was a viable medium. And it sure is. As we’ve grown and developed we started accepting sponsorships of our meeting coverage and direct advertising too. But we have been running into some issues since we don’t make you fill out a form telling us if you farm, type, # of animals or acres, etc.

I wrote a post on this subject on my Facebook page last weekend and the response has been very good and welcomed. If you would like to comment here or there I would appreciate it.

We’re doing some strategic planning for ZimmComm New Media and any feedback would be helpful. I’m not making any predictions here but I sense some significant new changes coming to how we send and receive information. Take a look at the debacle of news coverage of the Presidential election and maybe you sense some change coming too.

Thank you. The ZimmComm Team is off to a great start in 2017 and we hope to see you on the agriblogging highway somewhere soon.

Uncategorized

#AFBF17 Looks at Immigration Reform

Kelly Marshall

A panel recently addressed the issue of immigration reform at the American Farm Bureau Federation‘s 2017 Annual Convention & IDEAg Trade Show. Tom Hertz, an economist from the Department of Agriculture and Mark Delich, director of congressional affairs at FWD spoke to the attendees about the economic and political realities of the issue, as well as some proposed reforms.

Hertz broke down trends in the farm workforce– declining immigration rate and rising labor costs, aging farming population, as well as possible expansion of the H2A program. Delich focused on the political landscape, talking about creating an organization that supports comprehensive immigration reform.

“We’re a nation started by immigrants,” Delich said. “It’s important to start the reform discussion by looking at the overall benefits of immigration—the entrepreneurship, work ethic and innovation immigrants bring—and we want to see that continue. […] Your members of Congress need to hear directly from you on this issue and why it’s important to you.”

Listen to the panel discussion here: AFBF Immigration Reform Session

2017 AFBF Annual Meeting Photos

AFBF, Audio

2016 Crop Production Summary Is In

Kelly Marshall

It’s been touted for months, but the USDA’s final Crop Production 2016 Summary finally confirms it, last year was a record-high yield for corn and soybeans.

In 2016 corn growers produced 15.1 billion bushels- 11 percent higher than 2015. Average yield is estimated to be 174.6 bushels per acre, up 6.2 bushels over the last crop. The National Agricultural Statistics Service says 86.7 million acres were harvested, a bump of 7 percent from 2015.

Similarly, soybean production broke records with a total of 4.31 billion total bushels. That’s 10 percent more than the previous year, and the average soybean yield was up 4.1 bushels over 2015, giving the nation an estimated record high of 52.1 bushels per acres. Area harvested went up 1 percent from last season, coming in at 82.7 million acres.Read More

Corn, Soybean, USDA