US Custom Harvesters Pick Planning Partner

Cindy Zimmerman

uschiU.S. Custom Harvesters, Inc., (USCHI) has named Lamp Public Relations
& Marketing as its strategic planning development partner through June 2016 to help the organization continue strategic discussions towards implementing a Strategic Plan for 2016-2020.

“We’re excited to work with Lamp Public Relations & Marketing as we cultivate outside resources to promote partnerships and collaborations to create our capacity and inventory for Strategic Plan 2016-2020,” says. USCHI President, Kent Braathen of Grand Forks, N.D. “We’re a strong organization with deep roots and need a stronger agricultural voice in Washington, D.C., on labor and other issues that directly affect our livelihoods as we harvest the crops that feed the world.”

The agency and USCHI board members will be seeking input from membership and industry leaders at the 2015 USCHI National Convention this week in Grand Island, Neb.

Agencies, Harvest

New Propane Irrigation Engine Introduced

Cindy Zimmerman

origin-percThe Propane Education & Research Council (PERC) and Origin Engines have released a new, emissions-certified, 9.1-liter propane irrigation engine as an alternative for producers to Tier 4 diesel models.

PERC invested in the development and commercialization of the engine and provided industry expertise to Origin, which has over three decades of experience designing and manufacturing engines for industrial, on-road, and irrigation applications. This is the third engine Origin has developed in its partnership with PERC.

“The need for efficient, emissions-certified, propane engine options has grown as Tier 4 diesel engines have become more expensive. One of PERC’s priorities is developing new technologies that advance energy efficiency in ag,” said Cinch Munson, PERC’s director of agriculture business development. “By working with leading engine developers like Origin, we can help ensure that farmers’ power needs are met as cost-effectively as possible.”

The 9.1-liter model, rated for 95-190 horsepower, was developed to fill the gap between Origin’s popular 8.0-liter and 10.3-liter propane engines. Like the company’s 8.0-liter and 10.3-liter engines, the Origin 9.1-liter is built for continuous use, high-power applications and is also compatible with remote telematics monitoring systems, though third-party installation is required.

The Origin 9.1-liter engine qualifies for a $3,640 incentive through the PERC Propane Farm Incentive Program. Producers purchasing new propane engines may also be eligible for additional purchase incentives through their state propane gas associations. The engine will be on display at the Western Propane Gas Association lot, W20-22, during the World Ag Expo, Feb. 10-12 in Tulare, California.

Find out more from PERC here.

Irrigation, PERC, Propane, Water

The Chicken Wing & Football Bond

Jamie Johansen

super-bowl-wingsThe Super Bowl is just days away. The game is very important to many, but we want to focus on another aspect of the game…and no, I don’t mean the commercials. Those are great, but lets talk about Super Bowl food. Our current ZimmPoll asks you to name your favorite Super Bowl party food and one of those choices is wings.

Did you know that 1.25 billion wings will be consumed on Super Bowl Sunday? To put that into perspective, the National Chicken Council said, “if 1.25 billion wing segments were laid end to end, they would stretch back and forth from CenturyLink Field in Seattle to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA almost 28 times. And 1.25 billion wings would circle the Grand Canyon 120 times.”

The National Chicken Council 2015 Wing Report also showed that four in five U.S. adults eat chicken wings, which holds steady from last year. Over half (56%) like to eat wings with ranch dressing and only about 36% prefer blue cheese dressing. BBQ sauce even beat blue cheese, coming in at 42%.

Wing eaters were also asked if they preferred bone-in or boneless. According to the survey, 54% like the traditional bone-in wings while 46% chose boneless. They were also asked which segment of the wing was their favorite. 46% like the drumette and only 25% would rather have the flat. The whole wing was preferred by only 10% and almost 20% will eat them anyway they can get them.

It’s clear wings sales spike during the week leading up to the Super Bowl. But did you know that the concept of cooking wings in peppery hot sauce was born in 1964 at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY? The owners would cook leftover wings in hot sauce for a late-night snack for friends. Soon they were added to the menu, served with celery and blue cheese, “Buffalo Wings” were an instant hit. They started promoting the item around the country and it gradually caught on.

So how did the trend team up with football? In the 80’s consumers began to prefer boneless-skinless breast meat, wings soon became an inexpensive byproduct for chicken producers. Restaurants and bars realized they could sell low priced protein and since it was spicy and salty, it paired perfectly with beer. The popularity of TVs in bars grew and the most common sporting event to watch with friends in bars was football. Wings were an easy “group food” to share and so the “pigskin-chicken wing bond was born.”

Tom Super with the National Chicken Council talks more about wings and football in this interview: Interview with Tom Super, National Chicken Council

Ag Groups, Audio, Food, Poultry

AgNerd Cloud – John Deere App Center

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 463AgNerd Cloud alert! I was just feeling appy this morning so I thought this week’s program could focus on Apps. As in the new John Deere App Center.

John Deere App CenterTo learn all about it I talked with Nathan Greuel, John Deere Mobile Technician.

The John Deere App Center provides users the ability to search and find apps most useful to their business or operations. They will also be able to share the apps on social media and provide feedback to improve the applications and develop additional apps for the future. The App Center is actually an app itself which allows you to search within it for the right kind of John Deere app you’re looking for. A version for Android is in the works too.

As we learned in last week’s ZimmCast the faster mobile technology on the horizon will only increase the number of apps for farmers allowing them to transfer and utilize more and more data in a mobile fashion. I think that this is just the start of increased app efforts like this. Learn more in this week’s program.

You can listen to this week’s program here: AgNerd Cloud - John Deere App Center

Subscribe to the ZimmCast podcast here.

The ZimmCast

sponsored by
The ZimmCast podcast is sponsored by GROWMARK
Locally owned, globally strong.
Agribusiness, Apps, Audio, John Deere

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

Zimfo Bytes

  • Look for a celebration of local Vermont food via the 4th Annual Capital Cook-Off, an Iron Chef-style cooking competition highlighting an exciting secret ingredient; and a Buy Local Market featuring locally made Vermont products.
  • Peterson Farms of Loretto, Ky., has been named the winner of the 2015 Top Producer of the Year award.
  • NCGA announced the 16 winners of the 2014 Fields of Corn Photo Contest.
  • “Tools to Fund Agricultural Research” is the topic to be examined at the Farm Foundation Forum on Wednesday, Jan. 28. To participate by audiocast CLICK HERE.
Zimfo Bytes

Bayer Seeking Bee Leader Nominations

Cindy Zimmerman

bayer CropScienceBayer CropScience is seeking nominations for its third annual Bee Care Community Leadership Award. The award recognizes beekeepers and others who use their commitment and interest in honey bees for the benefit of their communities.

“Honey bees play an important role in supporting our food supply, pollinating as much as a quarter of all plants consumed in the U.S. and $15 billion of American crops,” said Dr. David Fischer, manager of the Bayer North America Bee Care Center. “Beekeepers not only care for these important insects, but also provide a positive influence in their communities by encouraging others to explore innovative ways to incorporate honey bee colonies in their work.”

The award, an initiative of Bayer’s North American Bee Care Program, provides a $5,000 grant to the winner to be used in support of a community beekeeping project and the winner will also receive an all-expense paid trip to a reception in Washington, D.C. during National Pollinator Week.

Any beekeeper or individual with a focus on honey bees may apply. Activities the beekeeper or individual may be engaged in include, but are not limited to, the use of beekeeping in therapy, such as with at-risk youth or veterans, bee care education for children or adults and community events that allow non-beekeepers to understand the inner working of a bee hive and more. Individuals interested in applying for the award can obtain an application at www.pollinatorweek.bayer.com. The deadline for submission is April 3, 2015.

Bayer, Bees

Farmers’ Data Could be Big Cash Crop

John Davis

afbf15-farmobileIt’s said that knowledge is power, and now information could be a powerful cash crop for farmers. Attendees of the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 96th Annual Convention and IDEAg Trade Show heard from Jason Tatge, current president, CEO and co-founder of FarMobile, who sees huge potential for farmers to dictate the sale of their data to large agricultural companies.

According to Tatge, farmers currently lack the necessary protection of their data. “Without a safeguard, data could manipulate margins,” he explained. “Our goal is to get the revenue stream back to the growers.”

He expects his company, FarMobile, to be the first of many to step in and mediate this process. FarMobile provides farmers with a device that can be plugged into a tractor to gather data on land and machinery including fuel economy, speed, direction and products being applied. The information is then directed to an electronic file that can be accessed at the farmer’s discretion.

Once this data is in the system, FarMobile facilitates opportunities between farmers and agricultural companies by allowing large companies to make offers to purchase the farmer’s data, should they desire to make a profit rather than utilize it for personal use. According to Tatge, this is the main way farmers can start to turn a profit on their data.

Tatge says the current state of “farmer data rights are the Wild West,” and he wants to put control back into the hands of farmers.

2015 AFBF Convention photo album

AFBF, Ag Groups, Agribusiness, data

Farm & Ranch Life’s Top Ten Tractors

Leah Guffey

Farm and Ranch Living recently asked their readers to submit and vote for their favorite tractor of all time. This really hit home for me since my dad still has the first tractor he over bought – a Massey-Harris 101 Junior. He also has the first car he ever bought, but that’s a different story.

farmandranchlivingOld tractors are still used on a lot of farms and ranches today because, as they say, they just don’t make them like they used to. I teased my dad when he took me to my first antique show by asking him why it was an antique when it was what we used!

For my Hick Chick Chat podcast last week on Precision.AgWired.com, I spoke with Farm and Ranch Living editor Robin Hoffman about how they came up with their top ten list. Robin said it was really a lot of fun to calculate the votes and read through the stories readers sent in. He told me that most of the stories they received weren’t that much different from what my dad and I had discussed. People are very passionate about their thoughts and how they feel about their old iron!

You can find the complete list and check out the stories that were printed by going online or checking our their publication, but Robin and I go through all ten and the honorable mentions here in this interview: Interview with Robin Hoffman, Farm and Ranch Life

Audio, Case IH, Farm Machinery, John Deere, Tractor

AgNerd Giveaways

Chuck Zimmerman

Touchfire Keyboard for iPadThe AgriBlogger wants to get more serious about his AgNerd giveaways.

I’ve done several just via social media mentions and the response has been great. Here’s the latest results. I offered a new Touchfire Screen-Top Keyboard for iPad (1,2,3). It’s just a random drawing of those who responded via Twitter or Facebook. The lucky person to win this gadget helper is Harlen Persinger. His FB comment was “I’ll take a shot, never hurts to get lucky now and then.” Well Harlen, I guess you got lucky. So it’s on it’s way your way.

I have several more very cool AgNerd Giveaways ready to go and will begin featuring them here in addition to social media channels. It just ties into my new AgNerd Cloud column too well not to share the gadget love.

I’m also still seeking a sponsor for the AgNerd Cloud/Giveaways. This would be very helpful to me in getting out into more direct ag gadgetry and Appery. Is Appery a word? Tune in next Monday when I announce the next AgNerd Giveaway.

Gadgets

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes

Zimfo Bytes

  • John Bozeman has been named SEEDWAY’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), effective Sept. 1, 2015.
  • DTN/The Progressive Farmer recently captured three first place and three honorable mention awards in the 2014 Folio Awards.
  • Monsanto plans to open its first plant in Russia in coming years, stepping up its activities in the world’s fourth largest grain producer as it seeks to counter the effects of a plunging rouble.
  • The American Angus Association has launched a new program called Future Angus Stockmen – an effort to impact the next generation through learning opportunities, while building a bond with the Angus breed and its member-driven organization.
Zimfo Bytes