This Independence Day Let’s Think About Our Military

Chuck Zimmerman

Lanon BaccamAs we prepare for our annual Independence Day celebration this story struck a chord with me. We may not have had the type of military we have today back in 1776 but we had courageous and committed men and women who fought for and won our independence from a tyrannical government. To this day we still have the finest military in the world going into harms way to keep our freedoms. So, how many do you know who have left the service and become part of our agricultural industry?

This morning I spoke with Katelyn McCoy, USDA Office of Communications, who wanted to share a conversation about the department’s work with military veterans. It’s something you might not be familiar with so I’m sharing it here.

A Conversation with USDA Military Veterans Agricultural Liaison Lanon Baccam
By Katelyn McCoy, USDA Office of Communications

Lanon Baccam (pictured) serves as the Deputy Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services. Baccam oversees the domestic programs within FFAS, including Farm Service Agency and Risk Management Agency. Baccam also serves as the USDA Military Veterans Agricultural Liaison. Being an Army veteran, he connects veterans with opportunities in the field of agriculture, providing information to returning veterans about services available them through USDA.

This interview took place at Arlington National Cemetery, where scores of service men and women lay at rest after giving the ultimate sacrifice to protect our country.

“This is what we’re here looking at today. Every one of these headstones represents someone who gave their life for this country, and that to me, is one of the most compelling reasons why I work as hard as I do for our servicemen and veterans.” –Lanon Baccam

Why are military members and veterans a good fit for agriculture?
There is a certain value system that exists in rural America that are some of the same values that members of the military have. Respect for the land, hard work, and really just believing in something bigger than yourself. This drives them to serve. There’s no other group of people out there who are used to hard work, waking up early, staying up late and are mission focused. That’s why they’re a good fit for farming and ranching. It’s a business; there’s a lot of different aspects to it. There’s hands-on hard work, you’re outside. Military members spend a lot of time outdoors, and many of them don’t want to go back and sit at a desk all day, so getting into farming and ranching is a good transition for them, because it’s a more natural fit.
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Farming, USDA

July Kicks off @Bayer4CropsUS Showcase Days

Cindy Zimmerman

bayer-plot-toursStarting next week, growers around the country will have the opportunity to visit a local Bayer Showcase Days event to learn about the most recent advances in managing weed resistance; sudden death syndrome in soybeans; nematode pressure; and other agronomic challenges. The events will also feature seed traits, varieties and hybrids and demonstrate the success of various Bayer products used on corn, soybeans, cereals, canola and cotton crops.

Showcase Days consists of a series of events scheduled in fields around the country, tailored to provide growers with solutions for their agronomic challenges. Sponsored by Bayer, specialists and local agronomists will be on site to discuss problems and provide solutions, specific to local growers’ fields, soil profiles and environmental conditions.

“Growers have a lot of information to absorb every year, as they plan for the next season,” said Bayer Marketing Manager, Malin Westfall. “These Bayer Showcase Days help growers wade through a lot of that information in a concise way. We invite growers to visit us, see products at work and get honest answers to their questions.”

The Showcase Days road tour will hit 13 states between early July and mid-September and growers can register for their local Showcase Days event at ShowcasePlotTours.Bayer.us. This site also includes information for locations and events. Attendees can also enter the Real Yield Sweepstakes onsite for a chance to win prizes like a 500 acre field of LibertyLink for soybeans or cotton.

Bayer, Corn, Cotton, Events, Soybean

Cookout Cuisine – What do you bring to the table?

Jamie Johansen

New Holland ZimmPollOur latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “What does Brexit mean for ag?”

It’s been about a week since the United Kingdom voted themselves out of the European Union. I will have to agree with the majority in this poll. It is too early to tell the complete global impact this decision will have on the agricultural industry. The value of the Euro is in question and markets are down around the world. The rest is yet to be seen.

Here are the poll results:

  • Major consequences – 11%
  • No impact at all – 16%
  • Too early to tell – 63%
  • Don’t know – 5%
  • Don’t care – 5%

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, What cookout cuisine do you bring to the table?

The holidays bring family and friends together and those get togethers are always centered around food. The 4th of July is typically all about cookouts. America’s favorite foods remain affordable for the 2016 grilling season. When it comes to cookouts, what do you bring to the table?

ZimmPoll

A Conversation With Novus’ Innovation Expert

Jamie Johansen

novus-16-anniversary-68-edited Novus International held a special informational session during its 25th Anniversary Celebration, with Scott Hine, VP, Products & Solutions and Chief Innovation Officer, leading a question and answer session about the importance of science, technology, and innovation to Novus.

Hine discussed Novus’ vision for the future, and emphasized the company’s sustained commitment to research and innovative discoveries. He was asked several questions about the future of the animal health and nutrition industries, which have been facing a multitude of legislative, economic, and regulatory challenges in the past few years.

“We are actively looking at, and have projects in the books that are looking at the area of feed preservation, and in terms of animal health, we’ve got what I consider to be very unique, groundbreaking work going on,” he said during the session. “It’s exciting stuff, and it will help us continue to answer different needs of the producer across the world, whether they are related to reducing antibiotic use or maximizing gut health. I think it’s a win win.”

Listen to the full Q&A session here:Conversation With Scott Hine, Novus

View and download photos from the event here:Novus International 25th Anniversary Celebration Photo Album

Agribusiness, Novus International, Nutrition

Record #Soybean, Higher #Corn Acres Planted

Cindy Zimmerman

USDAUSDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) planted acreage report for this year estimates record soybean plantings and increased corn acres over last year.

The report estimates U.S. soybean planted area at a record high 83.7 million acres, up 1 percent from last year, while corn growers increased their acreage from last year by 7 percent to 94.1 million acres, making it the third highest corn planted acreage since 1944.

According to USDA-NASS, favorable weather conditions aided soybean farmers in 18 out of the 31 major producing states. In Kansas, Minnesota, and Missouri, soybean growers significantly increased their planted acres, with each state reporting 200,000 or more acres planted to soybeans this year than in 2015. Growers expect to harvest 83.0 million acres of soybeans nationally this year, which, if realized, will be a new record high.

U.S. corn growers also benefited from the excellent field conditions this year and expect to harvest 86.6 million acres for grain. If realized, this will be the third highest acres harvested for grain since 1933.

Both soybean and corn growers continued to embrace biotechnology. According to the report, 94 percent of this year’s soybean acreage was planted to herbicide resistant varieties. On the corn side, 93 percent of 2016 crop was planted to biotechnology seed varieties, which include insect and herbicide resistant varieties of corn seed.

NASS today also released the quarterly Grain Stocks report to provide estimates of on-farm and off-farm stocks as of June 1. According to this report, there are 4.72 billion bushels of corn stored in the United States, up 6 percent from June 1, 2015. Of these, 2.47 billion bushels are stored on farms, and 2.25 billion bushels are off-farms.

Also in the report, all wheat planted area for 2016 is estimated at 50.8 million acres, down 7 percent from 2015, and all cotton planted area for 2016 is estimated at 10.0 million acres, 17 percent above last year.

Brian Basting of Advance Trading, Inc. (ATI) analyzed today’s report on the MGEX Crop Conference Call. Listen to his analysis here: Acreage Report analysis by Brian Basting, ATI

Audio, Corn, Soybean, USDA

.@Syngenta Committed to Growers

Joanna Schroeder

During ethanol race weekend last week Chuck Zimmerman sat down with Chris Tingle, head of marketing for Enogen with Syngenta, to learn more about their partnership with Growth Energy and the Iowa Speedway along with their commitment to growers with products such as Enogen. Tingle said its great to be a partner with Growth Energy and the Iowa Speedway to bring ethanol to the consumer during the American Ethanol E15 250 presented by Enogen.

enogen-chris-tingleChuck asked him what message did he want the media to take away with them?

Tingle replied, “When you really think about, ethanol started with moonshine and moonshine started NASCAR so we’re all really related in the circle of evolution. But I think as we’ve progressed as a society, we’ve failed to realize the benefits of products like ethanol. So we’re here to partner, to bring flexibility not only to ethanol but also around E15, and to get that technology to consumers through supporting the flex fuel pump program that helps get infrastructure in place for consumers. We’re also highlighting all the technologies we have around the ethanol space in which Syngenta is a pioneer in the industry bringing products like Enogen, partnering with Quad County Corn Processors with technologies like Cellerate, just showing our sustainability commitment to ethanol.”

Tingle stressed that one of the greatest benefits of ethanol, other than saving consumers money at the pump with a higher octane fuel, is the benefits to rural America where the ethanol facilities are in operation and the farmers are growing food, feed and fiber from crops such as corn.

“Corn growers were very innovative and smart many years ago in really investing and supporting the ethanol industry and getting it off the ground as a market for their corn,” Tingle explained. “And the result of that today is roughly 40 percent of the corn grown in the U.S. is going into an ethanol plant while 2/3 of this corn comes back out as dried distillers grains [DDGs] for the feed industry. So we’ve got two sustainable industries out there – one for the corn farmer and one for the animal producer using the dried distillers grains.” He noted that these ethanol plants and farms are located in rural economies providing jobs where community members spend their paychecks in local businesses.

“So Syngenta is really proud to support the ethanol industry,” added Tingle. “We bring products to help make it more sustainable and helping our growers stay in business. In 2016 alone we’re going to have put almost $26 million dollars in grower premiums back into the rural economies of our Enogen growers.”

To learn more about Syngenta’s commitment to the ethanol industry and corn farmers listen to Chuck’s interview with Chris Tingle here: Interview with Chris Tingle, Enogen-Syngenta

You can find lots of photos from Iowa Speedway race weekend here: Enogen Syngenta NASCAR Photo Album

Agribusiness, Audio, Corn, Ethanol, NASCAR, Syngenta

Nobel Laureates Say Stop Blocking Golden Rice

Kelly Marshall

Nobel Laureate Sir Richard RobertsThis morning three Nobel Laureates presented at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. to call on Greenpeace, the United Nations and governments around the world to support GMOs. They are the public face of more than 100 Nobel Laureates who signed a letter asking that campaigns agains products like Golden Rice be abandoned.  The letter condemns practices that are thwarting life-saving progress available through biotechnology.

Signers represent a variety of backgrounds; medicine, economics, physics, chemistry, literature, and peace.  Their campaign was kicked-off this morning by  Sir Richard Roberts (1993 Nobel Laureate for Physiology or Medicine), Professor Martin Chalfie (2008 Nobel Laureate for Chemistry) and Professor Randy Schekman (2013 Nobel Laureate for Physiology or Medicine).

At the press conference, Laureate Sir Richard Roberts stated, “In our letter we call upon Greenpeace and like organizations to end their shameful campaign of propaganda and criminal destruction of crops improved by modern genetic technologies, such as GMOs.” Roberts, added, “We call on governments and world organizations to do everything in their power to oppose anti-GMO obstruction and to accelerate farmer access to the life-saving tools provided by modern biotechnology.”

Roberts also points out the many good contributions made by Greenpeace, stating that “that this is an issue that they got wrong and [but we should] focus on the stuff that they do well.”

Nobel laureate Randy Schekman, a cell biologist at the University of California at Berkeley, says, “I find it surprising that groups that are very supportive of science when it comes to global climate change, or even, for the most part, in the appreciation of the value of vaccination in preventing human disease, yet can be so dismissive of the general views of scientists when it comes to something as important as the world’s agricultural future.”

Together the Laureates urge policy makers and the public an other to come together to support the logic of science and prevent “crimes against humanity” that are caused by needless deaths.

The movement has a website http://supportprecisionagriculture.org/ providing a list of the signers, their backgrounds and the benefits available through GMOs.

Ag Groups, Biotech, GMO, Precision Agriculture, Technology

USDA Finalizes Crop Insurance Provisions

Kelly Marshall

USDAThe Risk Management Agency (RMA) of the USDA says the final safety net provisions from the 2014 Farm Bill are now in place.  The new measures help protect farmers and ranchers agains weather disasters, market volatility and other risk factors.  Currently the RMA has put interim rules into place to complete provisions for some programs and give them the authority to correct errors.

“The Farm Bill directed us to make some changes that would strengthen the safety net we provide for America’s farmers and ranchers,” RMA Administrator Brandon Willis said. “These safety net options will help ensure that America’s hard working farmers and ranchers, and their families are able to better manage risks so that they can continue to farm even after years of severe weather.”

RMA began implementing the provisions under an interim rule for the 2015 crop year. Today’s action enables RMA to continue to offer and expand on the Farm Bill provisions for the federal crop insurance program.

USDA received more than 350 public comments on the interim rule published July 1, 2014. Based on that feedback, RMA made changes to one part of the rule – the native sod provisions. The final rule clarifies an exception that allows producers to break up to five acres of native sod and not receive reduced premium subsidy on coverage of native sod acreage. All other provisions of the final rule remain unchanged. A copy of the final rule goes on display today at the Federal Register and will be published June 30 at https://www.federalregister.gov/

The Obama Administration has expanded the program to be the strongest safety net possible, now covering different types, sizes and products.

Insurance, USDA

I AM @USFRA – Chris Galen @NMPF

Cindy Zimmerman

i-am-usfra-webThe National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) was one of the founding members of the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) five years ago to amplify the voice that dairy producers have in speaking about food production.

“Ultimately, a lot of what USFRA is doing is built around communicating messages to people who influence the food marketing environment,” says NMPF Senior Vice President of Communications Chris Galen.

nmpf-galenGalen serves on the board of USFRA and is chair of the Communications Committee, which is comprised of other communications specialists from various member organizations and helps implement USFRA programs. “One is to train a select and highly effective group of ‘spokesfarmers,’ what we call the Faces of Farming and Ranching,” he says. The ‘Faces’ program includes young farmers and ranchers from all over the nation who represent different aspects of agriculture. “We use those people to go out and speak to the media and the public in a variety of high profile opportunities.”

Galen says they have already had two groups of ‘Faces’ and are in the process of selecting the next class, with the application deadline coming up on July 10. He urges young dairy farmers who want to represent agriculture to apply and become a part of the effort to communicate with the public on important issues such as animal care, antibiotic use, and sustainability. “If we don’t hang together we’re going to hang separately on a lot of these issues and challenges,” he says.

Learn more in this interview with Chris. Interview with Chris Galen, NMPF

usfra-banner

Audio, Dairy, USFRA

Food Labeling Efforts Supported by 1,000 Organizations

Kelly Marshall

CFSAFMore than 1,000 ag and food industry organizations have come together to show their support for the food labeling solution.  Co-chairs for the Coalition for Safe Affordable Food (CFSAF), Pamela Bailey and Charles Conner are excited by the show of support for this critical legislation and hope a letter to the Senate will demonstrate the necessity of moving forward quickly.

“The unparalleled support from across the nation and across America’s food producing community shows how important this legislation is and why the Senate should pass it quickly,” said Conner, President and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. “The over 1,000 groups that signed this letter strongly support the Roberts-Stabenow legislative solution and urge action before the negative impacts of Vermont’s law increase.”

“This bill provides consumers access to more information than ever before in a way that doesn’t needlessly complicate the jobs of American family farmers and small businesses,” said Bailey, President and CEO of the Grocery Manufacturers Association. “The signers of this letter represent the people most directly responsible for producing our safe, affordable food supply. We ask that the Senate quickly bring this legislation up for a vote and pass it.”

The letter is addressed to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Harry Reid.  It requests leadership to act quickly on the bill. “We thank Chairman Roberts and Ranking Member Stabenow, for their strong leadership on this issue, and we ask that you schedule floor time and provide expedited consideration of this important and timely legislation,” the letter states. “We pledge to work with senators on both sides of the aisle to ensure quick passage of this bipartisan proposal.”

Ag Groups, Food