Syngenta Drive to Thrive Contest

John Davis February 12, 2015

A new contest announced by a leading plant science company is designed to reward individuals and farming communities. Syngenta says its Drive to Thrive contest is now open and asks growers and other industry professionals to describe how agriculture makes their communities thrive. The 10 best entries will each receive a mini touch-screen tablet and leather case, with one grand prizewinner receiving a $500 gas card and a $1,000 Syngenta donation in his or her name to a local charity or civic organization.

“Agriculture is the engine that drives so many communities across the U.S. to succeed,” said Wendell Calhoun, communications manager at Syngenta. “The Drive to Thrive contest gives us a chance to reward and recognize a few individuals whose talents and hard work make U.S. agriculture the leader in feeding, fueling and clothing the world.”

The process to participate is simple:

Click on the easy-to-use online entry form.
In about 200 words, describe how agriculture makes your community thrive.
Then, upload a photograph or video that visually supports your written entry.

The deadline for entering is June 1, 2015, and 10 finalists will be chosen. Syngenta will then post all finalists’ entries on the Thrive website and ask visitors to help choose the grand prizewinner by voting for their favorite. These votes, along with the judges’ scores, will determine the winner. Online voting ends Sept. 1, 2015, with Syngenta announcing the grand prizewinner in October.

Agribusiness, Syngenta

Kentucky Proud of Farm Machinery Show

Cindy Zimmerman February 11, 2015

No other state can boast having the largest indoor farm show in the country and Kentucky is pretty proud that their little National Farm Machinery Show is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

“The National Farm Machinery Show is a point of great pride for Kentucky,” said Lt. Governor Crit Luallen, who took part in the ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday marking the milestone. “It has a tremendous impact on our tourism economy as the show brings people from so many different places, but most importantly, it’s a showcase for all the best products and services that agriculture has to offer.”

Luallen still lives on her family farm near Frankfort where they raise tobacco, soybeans, and hay. “I’ve lived there all my life and I understand personally the value of agriculture,” she said. Interview with Kentucky Lt. Governor Crit Luallen

The Kentucky State Fair Board owns and operates the NFMS and president Rip Rippetoe says it has grown from very humble beginnings in 1966. “It literally started with 40 to 50 10-by-10 booths,” said Rippetoe. “We’re now at 860-plus exhibitors and 1.2 million square feet of exhibit space and have a waiting list of people wanting to get in. And it’s because the leadership over the past 50 years has kept it relevant and kept it in the public awareness.”

Rip adds that the Championship Tractor Pull, held in conjunction with the NFMS, celebrates 47 years this year. “It was a grassroots effort that’s grown in to being probably the world’s most recognized competition in terms of tractor pulls,” he said. Interview with Rip Rippetoe, Kentucky State Fair Board

2015 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

Coverage of the National Farm Machinery Show is sponsored by

and

Audio, National Farm Machinery Show, Tractor

FMC Promotes Overlap Weed Control

Cindy Zimmerman February 11, 2015

There’s no way around it anymore. With the prevalence of resistant weeds growing every year, farmers are having to use a pre- and post-emergent overlap weed management program for control. At the 2015 National Farm Machinery Show, FMC Corporation is helping to make that a little easier for growers by offering effective modes of action to keep their fields cleaner from planting to harvest.

Nick Hustedde with FMC technical services says the overlap residual program is designed to address resistant weeds that have long emergence patterns. “That overlap program encompasses several different products from FMC for soybeans and corn that fit in the strategy,” said Hustedde. Those products include Authority products for pre-emerge, Anthem for early post-emerge, and Solstice in corn to the V8 growth stage.

“We can get multiple modes of action in order to control the weeds, preserve the yield potential and also delay the onset of resistance, which is what the overlap system is all about,” he added. “It’s extremely important to get a clean start and finish clean.”

Find out more about the FMC overlap system for weed management in this interview with Nick: Interview with Nick Hustedde, FMC

2015 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

The official show hashtag is #NFMS15.

Coverage of the National Farm Machinery Show is sponsored by

and

Audio, FMC, National Farm Machinery Show

2015 National Farm Machinery Show Ribbon Cutting

Chuck Zimmerman February 11, 2015

The ribbon and the cake have been cut and the 50th National Farm Machinery Show is officially underway.

Joining officials from the Kentucky State Fair Board to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the country’s largest indoor farm show were Kentucky Lt. Governor Crit Luallen, and the daughter of former governor Ned Breathitt who cut the ribbon to begin the first NFMS in 1966. Some of the 50 original exhibitors who were there at that first show were also recognized during the ribbon cutting.

Listen to comments from the ribbon cutters here and watch the video below:50th NFMS Ribbon Cutting

2015 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

The official show hashtag is #NFMS15.

Coverage of the National Farm Machinery Show is sponsored by

and

Audio, Equipment, National Farm Machinery Show, Video

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes February 11, 2015

Weed Science Society of America presented awards to more than two dozen individuals for their outstanding contributions to the field of weed science during the organization’s annual meeting, held this year in Lexington, Kentucky.
U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) announces that Dalton Henry will join the organization in March 2015 as Director of Policy.
Tessenderlo Kerley, Inc. (TKI) announced the purchase of the herbicide assets of norflurazon (Solicam) from Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC.
Six agricultural leaders received Purdue University’s Agricultural Alumni Association’s top honor this past weekend at the Ag Alumni’s annual Fish Fry.

Zimfo Bytes

Welcome to Start of #NFMS15

Chuck Zimmerman February 11, 2015

The 50th National Farm Machinery Show is underway in Louisville, KY. Stop by the New Holland booth, South Bldg, to get your custom selfie taken. Actually, you’re supposed to take your own selfie but they have two staffers on hand to take your photo and let you pick from five backgrounds. Then you’ll get it to share out. They’re encouraging the use of the hashtag #doubleyourfunNFMS. I’ve also got to thank New Holland for sponsoring our coverage of this year’s show. This has been a great relationship for about a decade!

Cindy and I will be out and about today and tomorrow gathering sponsor interviews and others to share with you this week and next. And of course we’re taking plenty of pictures.

You can find our photos from this year’s show here: 2015 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

The official show hashtag is #NFMS15.

Coverage of the National Farm Machinery Show is sponsored by

and

National Farm Machinery Show, New Holland

Ag Media Perspective from CIRB

Jamie Johansen February 11, 2015

As leaders in crop insurance flocked to the annual meeting of the Crop Insurance & Reinsurance Bureau, so did members of the agriculture media. Chuck thought it would be interesting to gather their perspective on some of the important issues discussed to help chart the course for the future.

Sara Wyant, AgriPulse, shared her takeaways and a few things that stuck out to her as she sat and listened during the event. “As we all know from talking to farmers across the country, crop insurance is a very important risk management tool. And farmers have come to rely on that instead of ad hoc disaster payments. That has been a good thing both from a tax payers standpoint as well as the farmers. The last Farm Bill has just been under our belts a year and certainly increased the investment in crop insurance and it also increased the opportunity of critics of federal spending to go after crop insurance. I think the fact that crop insurance will continue to have a bull’s eye on it’s back is evident in these discussions.”

The weather was another hot issue during the event and it was mentioned that the weather might just be as complicated as crop insurance. Jerry Hagstrom, The Hagstrom Report, gave his perspective on the weather, “I came away with the conclusion that at the present time we are in a period of warming weather. It’s just a matter of which kind of language you are using to talk about it. I am reminded that somebody said to me recently that a lot of farmers seem to be climate change deniers. But they wouldn’t be climate change deniers if people were not asking them to make changes. It’s the changes they don’t want.”

Listen to Chuck’s complete interview with the duo here: Interview with Sara Wyant & Jerry Hagstrom

2015 Crop Insurance & Reinsurance Bureau Annual Meeting Photo Album

Coverage of the Crop Insurance & Reinsurance Bureau Annual Meeting is sponsored by

Ag Groups, Audio, CIRB, Farm Bill, Insurance

The Growth of Eco Agro Resources

Chuck Zimmerman February 11, 2015

As we’ve seen in two big announcements this week alone, Eco Agro Resources, which was founded in 2013, is on a fast-paced growth curve. I talked with Andrew Semple, President/CEO, about how his company is having so much success.

By the way, Eco Agro Resources’ home office is located in my hometown of Sarasota, FL, although they already have offices around the country and the world. I hope to stop by for a visit later this spring.

Andrew says the company was started by a group of experienced ag industry individuals who share a common goal which is “a passion to feed the world.” Their products are geared to making food production more efficient in ways to help achieve that goal.

The announcements this week include the fact that Eco Agro Resources is now the exclusive North American marketers of the Ekote line of eco-friendly controlled-release fertilizers by Netherlands-based Ekompany. Additionally, Andrew says they have entered into a partnership with Solvay Novacare to develop market and product portfolio opportunities in North and South America. The partnership is part of larger discussions aimed at leveraging the companies’ combined enhanced efficiency fertilizer products (EEFs) for agricultural distributors and customers.

Learn more about Eco Agro Resources in this week’s program: Growth of Eco Agro

Subscribe to the ZimmCast podcast here.

The ZimmCast

sponsored by

Locally owned, globally strong.

Agribusiness, Audio, Environment, Fertilizer, International, ZimmCast

NCC Expects Cotton Acres to Decline

John Davis February 11, 2015

A new survey says fewer acres of cotton will be planted this year. This news release from the National Cotton Council cites the group’s 32nd Annual Early Season Planting Intentions Survey that shows U.S. cotton producers intend to plant 9.4 million acres of cotton this spring, down 14.6 percent from 2014.

Upland cotton intentions are 9.2 million acres, down 15.2 percent from 2014, while extra-long staple (ELS) intentions of 236,000 acres represent a 22.8 percent increase. The survey results were announced last week at the NCC’s 2015 Annual Meeting in Memphis.

Dr. Gary Adams, the NCC’s vice president Economics & Policy Analysis, said, “Planted acreage is just one of the factors that will determine supplies of cotton and cottonseed. Ultimately, weather, insect pressures and agronomic conditions play a significant role in determining crop size.”

He said that with average abandonment for the United States at 12.8 percent, Cotton Belt harvested area totals 8.2 million acres. Weighting individual state yields by 2015 area generates a U.S. average yield per harvested acre of 817 pounds. Applying each state’s yield to its 2015 projected harvested acres generates a cotton crop of 14.0 million bales, with 13.3 million bales of upland and 694,000 bales of ELS.

The group went on to say that low futures prices are driving the downturn in acres to be planted.

Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Cotton

Millennials’ High Standards for Animal Welfare

John Davis February 11, 2015

More than ever before, millennials have higher expectations of animal welfare practices being carried out by today’s producers. This news release from the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance says the group hosted a recent Food Dialogues panel, with this one focusing on on dairy operations, and the group attending in-person and online was told by Bruce Feinberg, global animal health and welfare officer with McDonald’s, that social media has allowed consumers to reach out and self-educate around agricultural issues, and companies must understand the relevance to consumers.

Elisabeth Leamy, 13-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, author and Dr. Oz consumer investigative correspondent moderated the panel, “Animal Care and Consumers’ Emerging Expectations,” which was the 26th installment of USFRA’s signature panel series.

A portion of the discussion focused on the responsibility that everyone across the food chain has when it comes to animal care. As Dr. Marcia Endres, D.V.M., Ph.D., professor of dairy science at the University of Minnesota explained, “When humans domesticated animals, they entered into a contract to provide food, water, shelter and protection – to provide them a good life.”

Robin R. Ganzert, Ph.D., president and CEO of the American Humane Association expanded on what a “good life” means and explained that humans’ contract with animals provides five essential freedoms: freedom from pain and suffering; freedom from fear; freedom from discomfort; freedom from hunger and thirst; and the ability for animals to express their natural behaviors.

“Now consumers simply demand that our contracts with animals must include humanely-raised,” said Dr. Ganzert. “It’s a core value so many of us share and now what I love to see is consumers moving together and actually becoming that voice for the animal. And what they are also looking for in humanely-raised is to make sure the humanely-raised definition of better treatment of animals is transparent.”

The group also addressed the issue of transparency and the use of undercover videos. Panelists stressed the importance of condemning the very small minority of producers who are depicted abusing their animals, and the time to communicate with the public comes well before something like that surfaces.

The U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance® (USFRA®) hosted the event during the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) Dairy Forum 2015.

Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Dairy, USFRA

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