Happy Thanksgiving From Our Table to Yours

Cindy Zimmerman

thanksgiving-2014aO God, source and giver of all things,
You manifest your infinite majesty, power and goodness
In the earth about us:
We give you honor and glory.
For the sun and the rain,
For the manifold fruits of our fields:
For the increase of our herds and flocks,
We thank you.
For the enrichment of our souls with divine grace,
We are grateful.

Supreme Lord of the harvest,
Graciously accept us and the fruits of our toil,
In union with Jesus, your Son,
As atonement for our sins,
For the growth of your Church,
For peace and love in our homes,
And for salvation for all.
We pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Food, Harvest, ZimmComm Announcement

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  • United Fresh Produce Association welcomes Mary Coppola as Senior Director, Marketing Communications.
  • Syngenta AG, the world’s largest maker of crop chemicals, said it will cut or relocate 1,800 jobs as Chief Executive Officer Mike Mack tries to tackle its cost base in countries such as Switzerland.
  • Reinke honored its top dealerships throughout the United States and Canada at the company’s annual convention held October 23-25 in Palm Springs, Calif.
  • U.S. Poultry & Egg Association (USPOULTRY) is sponsoring 14-plus poultry-related seminars and workshops during the 2015 year.
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Meet the New USFRA Faces: Erin Brenneman

John Davis

usfra-faces-erinShe might not have started out an Iowa farm girl, but Erin Brenneman has embraced the role on her husband’s family pig farm in the southeast part of the state.

“I was born and raised in the city, so I think that brings a unique perspective on farming,” the native of the Chicago suburbs told Cindy during an interview.

Now, as one of the new representatives in the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance’s (USFRA) Faces of Farming and Ranching program, Erin will get the chance to travel the country and participate in the Food Dialogues conversations to share stories and experiences on a national stage to help shift conversations about food production and set the record straight about how American farmers feed the nation and the world.

Erin said it was while attending Iowa State University and after when she moved to the family farm with her husband that she realized there was this incredible world of agriculture, something she shares on her personal blog, City Lights to Starry Nights.

“It just shows the little every day things that strike me on the farm. I just like to share the incredible world of what we do,” she said, adding those little things and the big things farmers do every day are why she wanted to be a USFRA Face of Farming and Ranching. “I know it’s not understood sometimes, and it needs to be. It’s great, and people really need to know that.”

You can also follow Erin at these sites:
Erin’s Facebook
Farm Facebook
Twitter

You can here more of Cindy’s conversation with Erin here: New USFRA Faces of Farming and Ranching - Erin Brenneman

Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Audio, Swine, USFRA

FMC Offering Year-Long Management

Cindy Zimmerman

FMC Gail StratmanThe FMC Agricultural Crop Protection portfolio has grown to now offer farmers a complete year-long management approach. Describing this to me during the recent National Association of Farm Broadcasting convention was Gail Stratman, Regional Technical Sales Lead.

He says, “That has been a focus for us, to offer growers more of a complete solution.” Going in to 2015 he advises growers to develop a plan, especially for pest management. This will allow them to help control their costs since commodity prices have dropped. He offers some other winter preparation ideas in our interview.

In the “what’s new” category for FMC Gail says look to Anthem® Flex herbicide which now provides residual control of grasses and broadleaf weeds in winter and spring wheat and cotton with burndown activity on emerged broadleaf weeds. It also works on weeds with known resistance to glyphosate and ALS herbicides.

Listen to my interview with Gail here: Interview with Gail Stratman, FMC
2014 NAFB Convention Photos

Audio, FMC, NAFB, weed management

FMC Introduces 3RIVE 3D™ Technology

Cindy Zimmerman

FMC 3RIVE3DDo you want your corn to thrive? How about 3RIVE 3D? That’s a new product from FMC Corporation. It is a crop protection delivery platform for three-dimensional in-furrow protection. The patent-pending 3RIVE 3D™ technology integrates formulation technology, application technology and active ingredients to increase net planting speed, in-furrow protection and early season success.

3RIVE3DDuring the recent National Association of Farm Broadcasting convention I spoke with Matt Hancock, corn segment lead, about this new delivery platform. He says this technology sets growers free to easily and efficiently cover more acres in less time while saving water, fuel and labor. “Growers can plant up to 500 acres between refills. With tight planting windows and more variable weather, growers are demanding technology that allows them to cover more ground faster. 3RIVE 3D helps growers get more done in a day.”

Capture® 3RIVE 3D™ is the first product formulated to integrate with this game-changing delivery platform that brings a whole new dimension in precision and performance to in-furrow application.

Listen to my interview with Matt here to learn more: Interview with Matt Hancock


2014 NAFB Convention Photos

Audio, Crop Protection, FMC, Insecticides, NAFB

American Seed Trade Officer at NAFB

Cindy Zimmerman

nafb14-asta-risa-galeThe first vice chair of American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) was in Kansas City this month for a meeting of the Western Seed Association immediately before the National Association of Farm Broadcasting convention.

“It’s the only organization that’s been meeting here longer than NAFB,” said Risa DeMasi with Grassland Oregon, who stuck around for another day to do some interviews with farm broadcasters. “It’s not a trading meeting, necessarily, but just getting together and letting people know what the new innovations and new products that are coming.”

DeMasi is very excited about what’s new in the cover crops business, with the pollinator “buzz” that’s going around. “Our company Grassland Oregon just introduced a winter hardy legume that is fantastic for fixing nitrogen, combating compacted soils, weed suppression,” she said. “Next year we’ll be introducing a Berseem clover called ‘Frosty’ that I think is really going to transform the alfalfa market.”

Coming up next month is ASTA’s annual Seed Expo in Chicago and while this has been largely a corn, soybean, and sorghum event, DeMasi says it has become much more. “With some of the changes coming to agriculture and the government programs and directives coming at us, we’ve got to start talking to each other, and it’s all interrelated,” she said.

Listen to my interview with Risa here: Interview with Risa DeMasi, ASTA officer
2014 NAFB Convention Photos

Coverage of NAFB Convention is sponsored by
Coverage of NAFB Convention is sponsored by BASF
ASTA, Audio, NAFB, Seed

AgVoice4Choice Urges Growers to ACT Now

Cindy Zimmerman

ag-voiceLast month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a report on the “Benefits of Neonicotinoid Seed Treatments to Soybean Production” concluding that “these seed treatments provide little or no overall benefits to soybean production in most situations.” Upon release of the report, a 60-day comment period was opened which concludes on December 22.

So far, the comment website reports just over 100 comments with the majority of those posted supporting the use of neonicontinoid seed treatments and asking EPA to review the data used to compile the report. Industry advocates for the use of neonics have created a website offering information and encouraging growers who use this important class of insecticides to make their voices heard.

AgVoice4Choice.com urges the agricultural community to ACT now –
Advocate for growers to have choices in production practices
Communicate the benefits of pest management
Tell EPA to review new information on seed treatments

A new study conducted by Ag Infomatics provides objective evidence of the benefits these products bring to modern pest management systems, which industry advocates can use to help make their case.

Agribusiness, Crop Protection, Farming, Insecticides, Soybean

Meet the New USFRA Faces: Darrell Glaser

John Davis

usfra-faces-darrellIn our series to educate you about this year’s selectees for the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance’s Faces of Farming and Ranching program, we introduce you to a man who wants to educate the public about modern agriculture and how America’s farmers are feeding the world.

“It’s very, very important as an industry that we help educate our consumer base about what we do on a daily basis,” Darrell Glaser, a farmer with 600,000 turkeys and 200 cows near Rogers, Texas, told Cindy during an interview. “For the most part, consumers have very little knowledge of how their food is treated or handled and what we do to actually raise the products we do. So as an industry, I felt it was important to tell our story. It really is a good story.”

Darrell added that while consumers might not know a lot about what America’s farmers are doing to feed the world, they do want to learn. As a contract grower for Cargill, he has conducted many tours of his turkey operation, something he and his wife, who works as a professor at Texas A&M, decided to integrate into the original Glaser family cow farm when they both left college. Each of those operations have a sustainability factor as products from one help the other.

Looking forward to the next year as he is part of USFRA’s Food Dialogues program held in different cities where many stakeholders are invited to the conversation, Darrell believes it will be a great experience.

“It’s going to be an exciting year, and we’re looking forward to helping educate people about what we do every day on the farm and ranch.”

Follow Darrell on Facebook here.

Listen to all of Cindy’s interview with Darrell here: New USFRA Faces of Farming and Ranching - Darrell Glaser

Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Audio, USFRA

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FARMLAND On Demand

Cindy Zimmerman

farmlandlogo4If you’re looking for a great movie to watch with the family over Thanksgiving – here is just the ticket. The feature film Farmland is now available for rent and purchase via On Demand platforms – providing more people with the opportunity to view the film from their own homes and digital devices. The film’s move to digital platforms takes place this month, following a successful four-week run on Hulu.com and Hulu Plus.

Farmland is available for digital download via iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Blockbuster On Demand, Sony PlayStation, Vudu.com, Xbox and YouTube. The cost to download and own the film ranges from $14.99 to $19.99 for high definition and $12.99 to $14.99 for standard definition format. Online rental will cost approximately $4.99 to $7.99 for high definition and $3.99 to $6.99 for standard definition format.

Farmland will also be available to traditional satellite and cable television subscribers via their respective Video-on-Demand or Pay-per-View platforms in December 2014. DirecTV and DISH subscribers will have access to Farmland through their Video-on-Demand or Pay-per-View channels beginning on December 2. The film is also being made available to companies that deliver Video-on-Demand (VOD) or Pay-per-View (PPV) content to ATT U-Verse, Verizon Fios, Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable. Viewers are encouraged to check their local VOD/PPV channels on their respective cable and satellite television providers for details.

It’s the perfect film to watch at a time when we are giving thanks for our bountiful supply of food in the United States – and the great people who produce it!

Farming, USFRA