New Holland 1st Cut Competition Winners

Chuck Zimmerman

New Holland 1st CutThe results are in and the winners of the New Holland 1st Cut Competition have been announced. They are Les Hershey of Kirkwood, Pa., Jimmy Parker of Stringer Miss., Merlin Bontrager of Timbo, Ark., Tyler Egeland of Ossian, Iowa, David Nelson of Preston, Idaho, Vanessa Dirksen of Alma, Ontario, and Leroy Otten of Ponoka, Alberta. Pictured is Leroy Otten’s entry.

The winners receive one year’s use of a New Holland Roll-BeltTM 450 Silage Special Round Baler.

To enter the 1st Cut competition, farmers ages 18 and older submitted a photo of their first cutting and uploaded the photo to the 1st Cut competition website. During the voting period, the public was invited to review the photos and vote for their favorite. Over 600 photos were eligible to win the use of a Roll-Belt round baler, and seven winners were selected from across the United States and Canada.

Forage, Hay, New Holland

New Holland Hero From Italy

Cindy Zimmerman

cnh-expo-francescoSince Expo Milano 2015 is being held in Italy and the vast majority of visitors are Italian, it made sense for New Holland to choose two farmers from Italy as “Seeds of Life Series” Heroes.

One of those is Francesco Condello, a grape grower and wine producer from Fiumana, where his Conde’ family farm is devoted to producing authentic Sangiovese di Predappio wine. “Our company estate is an example of the main theme of Expo ‘Feeding the World,'” said Francesco, through an interpreter, who is also his daughter. “Our estate is new, established in 2001, in a valley where we now have 110 hectares of vineyard and olive trees, where in 15 years a valley that was non-productive before has been transformed into a productive area.”

Francesco says he is very thankful to New Holland for the “Seeds of Life” project to put a face on producers around the world and was happy to be able to meet other farmers like himself from other countries and talk about the future of agriculture.

In this interview with Francesco he also talks about the sustainable practices he employs in his operation: New Holland Hero Francesco Condello of Italy

We did not get to interview the other Italian New Holland hero, but you can click here find out more about Claudio Destro who produces wheat, corn, canola and potatoes, and cattle on his estate in Maccarese.

2015 New Holland Heroes & Bloggers Days

Audio, Farming, International, New Holland

College Aggies Online Scholarship Program

John Davis

AnimalAgAllianceCollege students with an interest in agriculture will have the chance to get a real education and some real money to pay for education. The Animal Agriculture Alliance is launching its College Aggies Online (CAO) scholarship competition Sept. 28th.

“This year’s College Aggies Online participants are really in for a rewarding experience,” said Alliance President and CEO Kay Johnson Smith. “We are looking forward to helping connect future leaders in agriculture to our expert panel, which consists of experienced and renowned individuals in diverse fields, including online engagement, consumer communications, public policy and digital media.”

Program mentors include:

Kristina Butts, a Texas native and alumna of Texas Tech University, who serves as the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s executive director of legislative affairs.

Ilina Ewen, who writes at Dirt & Noise and is a seasoned marketer with 25 years of marketing, brand strategy, communications, and writing experience.

Lisa M. Frame, a freelance writer, social media strategist and blogger who currently lives just outside of Charlotte, NC.

Casey Hushon, account supervisor with Charleston|Orwig and a graduate of Virginia Tech with a degree in dairy science and a minor in professional writing.

Rebecca Shaw, dairy marketing specialist at Cargill Animal Nutrition who also works on her family’s calf and heifer raising operations.

Andy Vance, former farm broadcaster and current contributor and blogger for Feedstuffs who also designs multi-platform campaigns for advertisers reaching an agricultural audience via Feedstuffs, National Hog Farmer and BEEF Magazine.

Krissa Welshans, staff editor for Feedstuffs covering livestock and feed news, who has also worked for the National Pork Producers Council and the Animal Agriculture Alliance.

The competition consists of weekly challenges, and whoever gets the highest score will receive a $5,000 scholarship, national recognition and a trip for two representatives to attend the Alliance’s annual Stakeholders Summit in May. The first place individual will win a $2,500 scholarship and a trip to Summit. Scholarships and recognition will also be awarded to the first and second runner-up clubs as well as to the second and third placing individuals.

Education, University

The Prevention vs. Treatment Game

Jamie Johansen

bivi-15-ileitis-stpaul2-editedEvaluating the performance of a pig is a key element in good health management. Enteric Technical Manager for Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedia, Inc. (BIVI), Jessica Seate, said the best thing a producer can do is become an investigator. Finding a diagnosis with your vet before you make changes to your protocol should be the first thing producers do. I sat down with Jessica at a recent BIVI event to learn more about antibiotic use in the swine industry and the role it plays in the prevention vs. treatment game.

“For BIVI and for the industry, we always want to do what is best for the pig. As an industry we are going the way of less antibiotic in production. Boehringer Ingelheim’s point of view is prevention works. Having a vaccination up front is a great way to help with a health management program and in turn use less antibiotics and control diseases ahead of time.”

Jessica said vaccinations should be one tool in a producers tool box. Other factors like management, biosecurity, sanitation and rodent control should also come into play. Vaccination programs will vary geographically, but most producers will be vaccinating for myco circo, ileitis, PRRS, salmonella, e-coli, etc. Jessica said you could talk to every vet and every schedule could be a little different.

Using ileitis as an example, Jessica said, “Vets will use the ileitis vaccination either by the label at three weeks of age and others are pushing it to five or six weeks of age. The exposure is usually in late nursery. Also you have to worry about the maternal antibody interference.”

Ease of application is always at the minds of producers. “Especially with enteric diseases, oral vaccinations are the way to go. You can easily put it in the water and we have a lot of methods and programs in place to make that even easier. It take times down. It takes labor down. And it is easier on the pig and easier on people.”

Listen to my complete interview Jessica here:Interview with Dr. Jessica Seate, Boehringer Ingelheim

View photos from the event here: 2015 BIVI Leman Media Event

Agribusiness, Animal Health, Audio, Boehringer Ingelheim, Swine

Canadian Farm Writers Get Together

Chuck Zimmerman

Canadian Farm Writers FederationMembers of the Canadian Farm Writers Federation will be getting together starting tomorrow in Calgary, Alberta, although there is a pre-tour today. Thanks to Case IH I will be able to attend this year!

We’ll have a welcome reception tomorrow night with farm tours on Friday and sessions and a banquet on Saturday. This year the conference is being hosted by the Alberta Farm Writers’ Association. The theme is “Fixing Fences: Bridging the Rural/Urban Divide.” As I find out what that means I’ll be sharing right here on AgWired.

The hashtag for the conference is #CFWF15 so follow along.

Uncategorized

Rocky Mountain Ag Tour 2015

Chuck Zimmerman

NAMA Fall ConferenceThe Rocky Mountain Chapter of the National Agri-Marketing Association conducted a tour just prior to this week’s NAMA Fall Conference. Titled, “Fun, Flour and Farm-to-Table,” this group visited Rock Creek Farm, Ardent Mills and Linger Restaurant. Photos from the tour can be found here.

After an opening reception last night the program kicks off with meetings and beginning workshops.

The hashtag for the conference is #NAMAFall15 so follow along if, like me, you can’t make the activities in Denver.

NAMA

New Holland Hero From Germany

Cindy Zimmerman

cnh-expo-elke-2The German representative in the New Holland “Seeds of Life Series” Heroes at Expo Milano is Elke Pelz-Thaller of Reichertshofen, Germany who works 44.5 hectares (110 acres) of barley, grain, rye, wheat, asparagus and potatoes together with her husband.

“Twenty years ago I married my husband and my profession was a nurse,” said Elke at the New Holland Heroes and Bloggers event last week in Milan. “I think I’m not a hero because my husband is the hero and I am the wife of the hero.”

Despite the Expo theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life,” Elke laments the fact that most people know nothing about food production. “It would be very important for everyone who has a chance to visit this expo and think about feeding the planet,” she said. “German people have a lot of money for holidays, for everything – but food, it’s not important.”

Listen to my interview with Elke here: New Holland Hero Elke Pelz-Thaller from Germany

2015 New Holland Heroes & Bloggers Days

Audio, Farming, International, New Holland

Best College Farms In America Ranked

John Davis

UVAfarm1The University of Virginia has the best college farm in the country. That’s according to College Ranker, as the website has ranked the top 40 college farms in America.

Hundreds of colleges are using their farms for educational experiences for their current students, creating community-based learning opportunities, providing food for use on campus and even local farmers markets.

The full ranking can be viewed here: http://www.collegeranker.com/ranking/best-college-farms/

These 40 college farms were selected after compiling scores and ranking college farms based on the following criteria:

* Hands-on experiences
* Student involvement
* Community outreach programs
* Workshops, classes, and lectures
* Volunteering opportunities
* Degree plan options

The University of Virginia tops the list, seemingly on the strength of its forest program:

Blandy Experimental Farm has a 172 acre Arboretum which is home to 5000 living trees. There are over 200 types of conifers, 162 kinds of boxwood, cedar of Lebanon alee, an herb garden and the Virginia Native Plant Trail. Public programs are offered to encourage life long learning. Programs include lectures, tours, children’s camps which teach about environmental issues, natural history, gardening and much more. Educational programs are available for K-12 students in the form of hands on exploration and research driven field investigations. Currently, the University is studying pollination, plant-animal interactions, defoliation cause by the destructive gypsy moth and what happens when plants are in-bred.

Highmoor Farm is a 278 acre agricultural and forest experiment station which provides research based information for the apple industry. The farm is also the site of vegetable and small fruit variety trails. Current trials include tomatoes, pumpkins, green peppers, onions, sweet corn and strawberries. Farm researchers are looking for a way to improve the transplant quality of muskmelons and to create new ways to manage corn ear worm on sweet corn as well as powdery mildew on pumpkins.

The next nine college farms are as follows:

2. University of Maine
3. Goshen College
4. Green Mountain College
5. University of Vermont
6. Warren Wilson College
7. Cornell University
8. Ferrum College
9. College of the Ozarks
10. Deep Springs College

Elizabeth Chapman, the article’s author, had this to say regarding the ranking: “We are excited to highlight these 40 farms. They are providing great resources to their students as well as the community. These schools are impacting the future of our country as they work to research and develop innovative ways to grow and provide for families around the globe.”

You can see the entire top 40 here.

Education, University

Soybean Association Wants SOY Scholarship Candidates

John Davis

basf-soy-2015aThe American Soybean Association (ASA), once again, is looking to present a scholarship award to a high school senior interested in pursuing agriculture in college. ASA is offering its Secure Optimal Yield (SOY) Scholarship, a $5,000 one-time scholarship award presented to a high school senior who plans to pursue agriculture as an area of study at any accredited college or university in the 2016-17 academic year. BASF Corporation provides the grant for the scholarship, and interested applicants can apply now through Nov. 23, 2015 with the winner to be announced at Commodity Classic.

“ASA is happy to once again partner with BASF to offer this opportunity to an exceptional student pursuing a career in ag,” said ASA First Vice President Richard Wilkins, Greenwood, Del. “It’s imperative that we encourage today’s young people interested in agriculture and help them achieve their goals in any way we can.”

The scholarship is presented in $2,500 increments per semester. The student must be a child or grandchild of a current ASA member, maintain successful academic progress and be in good standing with the college or university to receive the full amount of the scholarship.

Final selection will be made the first week of December during the ASA Board meeting. The student will be notified prior to an official announcement made during Commodity Classic in New Orleans, La. on March 4, 2016.

“BASF considers the ASA to be our partners in preparing the next generation of agriculture professionals,” said Neil Bentley, director of marketing, US Crop, BASF. “This scholarship program is a way to reward students who excel in their studies, and it encourages them to learn more about careers in our industry.”

You can hear what last year’s winner, Maria Kuhns, had to say about being awarded the scholarship at Commodity Classic.

ASA, Soybean

New Holland Cocktail Contest

Chuck Zimmerman

New Holland Expo Milano 2015As you know, Cindy and I spent some quality time with our good friends at New Holland, along with the farmers who are the heroes of the Seeds of Life campaign. We’re pictured in front of the New Holland pavilion at Expo Milano 2015.

It was a great opportunity to see the similar challenges farmers face around the world. Nearly all of them said that, just like here in the United States, they are unappreciated and even vilified by the non-farming public in their homelands.

The event included a chance to interact with the farmers and journalists from their respective countries, visit the expo, and enjoy some great Italian wining and dining. One of the more memorable events during the visit included a cocktail contest. We had four teams each create a cocktail in competition with judging. Each team had to create a name for their cocktail and describe it with a story in front of the judges. Below is me describing our team’s entry. If it doesn’t make much sense, don’t worry. It didn’t make a lot of sense to us either.


2015 New Holland Heroes & Bloggers Days Photo Album

New Holland, Video