Final Decision Time – Who Are You Voting For?

Jamie Johansen

zp-nh1Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “Which candidate is better for agricultural exports?”

Both major party candidates have said they oppose the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) which most studies show would help to open up markets and increase agricultural exports. The Obama administration has been strongly in favor of TPP and urging Congress to ratify the trade agreement as soon as possible, but that will not likely be before the end of the year, leaving it in the hands of the next president and a new Congress. And in this poll it looks like Trump squeaked ahead.

Here are the poll results:

  • Donald Trump – 52%
  • Hillary Clinton – 32%
  • Gary Johnson – 6%
  • Jill Stein – 1%
  • None of the above – 9%

Our new ZimmPoll is live and asks the question, Final decision time – who are you voting for?

I wish I could promise this would be the final presidential election poll since the election is less than a week away. But we will continue to discuss how our new commander in chief will impact agriculture. So, let’s hear your final decision. Who are you voting for?

ZimmPoll

Enroll Now for 2017 ARC and PLC Programs

Kelly Marshall

usda-logoIf your farm is covered by the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) or Price Loss Coverage (PLC), now is the time to visit you local FSA office to sign contracts and enroll for 2017.  Starting this month, the enrollment period will continue until August 1, 2017, says FSA Administrator, Val Dolcini.

“FSA issued more than $7 billion in payments in October 2016 under the ARC-County and PLC programs for the 2015 crop to assist enrolled producers who suffered a loss of price or revenue or both,” said Dolcini. “Since shares and ownership of a farm can change year-to-year, producers on the farm must enroll by signing a contract each program year. I encourage you to contact your local FSA office today to schedule an appointment to enroll.”

Farms must be enrolled during the 2017 enrollment period to be eligible for financial assistance from either the PLC or ARC programs.  Producers already enrolled from 2015 are required to re-enroll for the next growing season.

Insurance, USDA

Bringing Deere Dealers and Developers Together

Cindy Zimmerman

jd-develop-16-kriegJohn Deere dealers are interacting with software developers this year at the annual Develop with Deere conference in Kansas City.

Conference coordinator Kevin Krieg says having the dealers on hand at the event will help them better serve their customers. “That’s really been the new add to this year’s conference is being able to get the software companies to share their message with the critical channel out there and that’s the John Deere dealers,” said Krieg.

At the conference this week, Krieg says the dealers are seeking actual production solutions from the developers. “We’ve asked the software companies in their presentations to focus on two things – what does their software solution do in production today and how does that integrate with the John Deere Operations Center,” Krieg said.

Learn more in this interview: Interview with Kevin Krieg, John Deere

Develop with Deere Photo Album

Audio, John Deere, Technology

Industry Groups Ask Court to Overturn WOTUS

Kelly Marshall

AFBF The American Farm Bureau Federation and many other organizations and businesses have asked a federal court to overrule the EPA and Army Corps of Engineer’s “Waters of the United States”. The submitted brief outlines many allegations in detail and describes a year’s worth of litigation involving the rule’s overreach.

The coalition’s brief explains how EPA flouted important procedural safeguards designed to ensure a fair and thoughtful rulemaking process. EPA tactics included withholding key documents until after the public comment period had closed, ignoring and ridiculing critical public comments and issuing illegal “covert propaganda” in an effort to generate superficial public support for the rule.

“EPA set out to achieve a predetermined outcome and then manipulated the public notice-and-comment process to achieve that outcome,” AFBF General Counsel Ellen Steen said. “It treated the rulemaking process like a game to be won instead of a deliberative process for developing lawful and reasonable regulations.”

The groups also cover how WOTUS violates the limits of the Constitution and the Clean Water Act and explain how the rule relies on vague terms to define “navigable waters.” The brief shows how no fair public notice has been given to describe to the public what features are covered in the rule.

“Regulators can reach any outcome they please, and regulated entities cannot know the outcome until they are already exposed to criminal liability, including crushing fines,” the brief states.

The coalition asks the federal court to strike the rule in its entirety.

AFBF, Ag Groups, EPA, Water

Zimfo Bytes

Lizzy Schultz

Zimfo Bytes

Zimfo Bytes

Developing With Deere

Chuck Zimmerman

John Deere Developers ConferenceJohn Deere is holding its annual Develop with Deere conference in Kansas City this year with almost double the number of attendees of last year. Many more dealers have come to learn what the company has planned for the future. The conference includes presentations from 33 application development companies who are working with John Deere in various ways to integrate with the John Deere platform.

I’ll be conducting interviews with John Deere representatives, dealers and developers to share primarily on our Precision.AgWired.com website. So keep an eye on it for new information as I find it.

I’m going to be sharing photos throughout the conference which you can find and share here: Develop with Deere Photo Album

Agribusiness, John Deere, Precision Agriculture

FMC’s Rhyme Tough on Powdery Mildew

Joanna Schroeder

Powdery mildew has been a major challenge for California growers this year. In fact, according to Tim Ksander, technical manager for FMC, it’s one of the worst these growers have ever encountered.

Powdery mildew is an interesting disease, Ksander told AgWired during the recent 2016 CAPCA Conference & Agri-Expo, because the disease infests numerous crops. However, there are different genera and they attack plants in slightly different ways.

FMC's Tim Ksander explains how Rhyme is tough on powdery mildew during the 2016 CAPCA Conference.

FMC’s Tim Ksander explains how Rhyme is tough on powdery mildew during the 2016 CAPCA Conference.

Fortunately there is a solution for growers from FMC called Rhyme™ fungicide, which Ksander said works on virtually all the different genera. One crop in particular that has been hard hit is grapes. “First powdery mildew infects the leaves and eventually it gets into the fruit, and that’s the part we’re trying to protect,” said Ksander. “The advantage of Rhyme fungicide is that it is systemic and can be sprayed right on the leaves. It can also go into the soil and can be taken up by the root system.”

Ksander said that whenever a grower is working with fungicides, he needs to be aware of resistance issues. A component of a good resistance management plan includes the timing of fungicide applications. “The best time to apply a fungicide is preventative because when a disease starts it’s harder to get rid of it. Rhyme fungicide has some curative activity so if there is a little bit of it there it will knock that back and prevent it from sporulating. Preventative treatment is the key to successful disease management,” stressed Ksander.

“To manage resistance what needs to be done with all fungicides is rotation, rotation, rotation. Rotation is the number one key to successful resistance management,” Ksander added. Another key? Mixing up modes of action.

Fungicides should be rotated within the growing season and between seasons. He explained, “If you end the season with a material such as a triozole, you don’t want to start the next season with that because that disease organism has already been subjected to that. Rather you want to start with a different mode of action when you start the season then rotate to another mode of action.”

To learn more listen to my interview with Tim Ksander here: Interview with Tim Ksander, FMC

Be sure to check out all the action by viewing the 42nd Annual CAPCA Photo Album.

Legal: Always read and follow label directions. Shark EW herbicide is only registered for use in California. FMC Fracture, Koverall, Rhyme, Shark and Sovran are trademarks and Investing in farming’s future is a service mark of FMC Corporation or an affiliate. ©2016 FMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 16-FMC-0857, 10/16

Agribusiness, Audio, FMC, Fungicide

Meteorologist Explains La Nina at #ExEx16

Cindy Zimmerman

exex16-tapley No matter where on the supply chain you are, members of the agriculture industry are always interested in the weather. Kyle Tamely, a senior ag meteorologist with MDA Weather Services, spoke at the Export Exchange 2016 conference last week on weather trends and the global grain market to international buyers and domestic suppliers of corn, ethanol co-products, sorghum and barley.

La Nina dominated his talk as Tamely explained how the weather phenomenon controls global weather. The Tropical weather patterns of La Nina occur when stronger than average trade winds move warmer water to the Western Pacific Ocean and cooler water moves to Central and Eastern Pacific. This pattern, the exact opposite of El Nino, is technically defined after five 3-month periods of water temperatures altered by 1/2 a degree Celsius. While the current situation may or may not reach the technical definition, Tamely says the affects on global weather will occur anyhow.

For the U.S., La Nina generally means dryer weather in the southwest, but for growers the impact will be minimal, with harvest unaffected overall. North America can expect slightly less than average rain fall now through the winter, however the north faces the possibility of high levels of snow pack through the winter.

South America may also see slightly dryer weather, although Brazil is typically unaffected by La Nina. Argentina is currently seeing good rains headed into the growing season, but too much rain in southern Brazil could affect wheat harvest. Tamely predicts a rise in crop production for South American over last season, due in part to the rebound from Brazil’s recent drought.

While Western Europe is still dry, Eastern Europe’s conditions are favorable for winter crops. A warmer than average winter should help decrease winter kill as well. The Black Sea region was dry until just recently, but rainfall has returned soil conditions to normal and above average winter temperatures there will be good for wheat too.

Australia has seen more precipitation, thanks to La Nina. In some areas the quality of the wheat harvest is being affected by damp conditions and an early frost and cool conditions aren’t helping. The continent will continue to see wet weather as La Nina continues through the end of the year. China has seen wet weather as well, but conditions are improving for harvest. Areas that were too dry are getting a boost from typhoons in the region. South Africa was hit hard by El Nino last year, but rainfall is returning to normal to above normal, relieving pressure after the drought.

While it’s too soon to say, Tamely looks for this weak La Nina too peter out with 2016 rather than gain strength. It is unclear what direction 2017 will take, but the forecast currently suggests water temperatures next year will be close to normal.

You can listen to Kyle Tamely’s talk here to get the details for yourself: Kyle Tamely, MDA Weather Services

2016 Export Exchange Photo Album

Coverage of Export Exchange 2016 made possible by Coverage of Export Exchange 2016 made possible by the Renewable Fuels Association
Audio, Events, Exports, Weather

New Communications Manager for New Holland

Cindy Zimmerman

New Holland is pleased to welcome Modesty Guarente as its new Brand Communications Marketing Manager, effective this week.

cnh-guarenteGuarente brings over fifteen years of communications and marketing experience to the role, which will include responsibility for all brand, product segment and channel marketing communications, as well as the management of creative agencies and vendors associated with New Holland in North America. Most recently, she served as Marketing Communications Manager for the residential division of Armstrong Flooring where she was responsible for increasing brand equity and driving content generation and sales support.

“Modesty is an accomplished marketing manager within the residential flooring industry, it’s an exciting time for her to join our team,” said Chun Woytera, Senior Director of Marketing. “We’re thrilled to have her expertise directing our communications and expect her to elevate the exposure, engagement and momentum of the New Holland brand.”

“Recent announcements like the autonomous tractor concept, have distinguished New Holland as the industry leader of innovative agricultural machinery and I’m very excited to join this company. Coming to New Holland is almost like coming full circle for me, I was proud to grow up on a fruit farm with New Holland machinery and I’m now proud to be a part of New Holland’s dedication to delivering inventive solutions to farmers and producers,” said Guarente.

Over her career, Guarente has been a proven leader in driving new business and sales, guiding teams in the development of new creative campaigns, marketing promotions and communications programs. She is a graduate of Hofstra University with a bachelor’s degree in Communications & Print Journalism.

New Holland

Need to Increase Demand for #Corn

Cindy Zimmerman

The new president of the National Corn Growers Association says growing demand continues to be a big priority for farmers.

exex16-spurlock“The crop is bigger than we’ve seen before, we just keep being able to produce these records,” said Wesley Spurlock, a corn farmer from Texas who just took over as NCGA president at the beginning of October. “Demand is what we’re working on. It’s demand, demand and more demand.”

And increasing demand for U.S. coarse grains and ethanol co-products is what the Renewable Fuels Association and U.S. Grains Council were doing with the Export Exchange 2016 in Detroit last week. “We really appreciate the work they do,” said Sprulock, noting that there were some 200 international buyers and end users from 35 countries at the event. “They’ve got small rooms set up so buyers and sellers can get together … for them to be able to communicate together is amazing.”

“We know we have the ability to produce these crops, so we have to be able to move them,” Spurlock said. “We need these exports healthy.”

Listen to my interview with Wesley here: Interview with Wesley Spurlock, NCGA president

2016 Export Exchange Photo Album

Coverage of Export Exchange 2016 made possible by Coverage of Export Exchange 2016 made possible by the Renewable Fuels Association
Ag Groups, Audio, Corn, Ethanol, Exports, International, NCGA, RFA