My American Farm App

Cindy Zimmerman

If you want to play My American Farm on your smartphone or tablet, there’s a new app for that.

american-farmThe American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture has released a new version of its popular My American Farm app for iPads, Android tablets and Kindle Fire. The app is available for download on iTunes, Google Play and Amazon.

The new version of the app, My American Farm 2.0, contains six My American Farm games, including the newly added Power Up game. This game allows young learners to dive into the world of energy and agriculture and embark on problem-solving missions for the virtual community of Energyville. The new app also builds on the math-focused game, In My Barn, with a Pre-K level to draw in new users. New badges also will be incorporated into the latest version of the app for everything from completing a game to engaging in virtual tasks like meeting a farmer or planting seeds.

The My American Farm educational game platform was launched in 2011 to engage pre-K through fifth-grade learners in agriculture. The site and resources are made possible through the generous support of title sponsor, DuPont Pioneer.

Learn more here.

AFBF, Ag Groups, Apps

Farms and Legs Relay

Cindy Zimmerman

TeamFinishTwelve runners represented agriculture this past weekend on a more than 200 mile run through California wine country in the annual Ragnar Napa Valley relay.

The “Farms & Legs” team, organized by Case IH, started out Friday morning from Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and ran 36 legs for 34 hours to wind up in Calistoga near the northern border of Napa Valley. Team members included Case IH employees, agricultural media and other members of the agricultural community, including former NAFB president Mike Hergert of Red River Farm Network. “The event was a big challenge, but all involved had a great deal of fun,” said Dan Danford of Case IH. “We’re already searching for another unique relay for the team to conquer next year!”

The Farms and Legs relay team is pictured here: Top Row L-R: Dudley Hoskins (NASDA Public Policy Counsel); Kathy Boone; Shawn Boone (Case IH); Mike Hergert (RRFN Radio); Bob Quinn (WHO Radio); Rick Stoner (Bader Rutter); Dan Danford (Case IH). Kneeling L-R: Jeff Blackwood (BASF); Kellie Bray (CropLife America); Jessie Scott (Successful Farming), Sarah Miller (Successful Farming); David Crow (DCLRS). Drivers: Corey Reed (Case IH), Scott Rasch (Case IH)

Way to go, team!

Case IH, NAFB

Forestry Thinning in Scotland

Chuck Zimmerman

Komatsu Tree HarvesterHow about cutting down a tree, stripping the bark and branches and cutting it into logs all in the matter of a few seconds? And without getting your hands dirty or your arms tired? Yep, this Transformers-looking machine from Komatsu can do it and does in the video below.

During the IFAJ Congress in Scotland on a rainy day we got to see forestry management in action at the Cairn Meilich Plantation, part of the Glenlivet estate. We met the management company run by Andy Duffus as they demonstrated how they thin the forest which creates income from the timber harvested while maintaining and preserving the historic forests. The main timber comes from Lodgepole Pine, Scots Pine, Sitka Spruce and Larch.

We watched a Komatsu 931.1 harvester grab a tree, cut it off at the ground, strip it, cut it into logs and place the fluffy tops and branches down in front of the tracks to cushion the ground impact as the harvester moves forward. Very impressive.


2014 IFAJ Congress Photo Album

Agribusiness, Forestry, IFAJ, Video

The Great American Wheat Harvest New DVD Cover

Jamie Johansen

DVD-cover-3DThe team behind The Great American Wheat Harvest are excited to announce their new DVD & Blu-ray cover. The cover features harvesters Jim Deibert and Rob Turkington “Turk” checking a wheat field in South Dakota.

They have also secured DVD distribution for Ireland and the UK, and are finalizing DVD distribution in Australia and New Zealand. Once these are ready to go, they will let us know. For all of the Canadian friends, the Association of Canadian Custom Harvesters will have DVDs available for their members and associates, and shipments will be opened up to Canada from their website. Wholesale orders are also being taken from equipment dealers and other retail outlets. If you would like to be a re-seller of our DVDs, please contact Mike at 406-698-9101

The DVD release date have been moved up. For all those who’ve pre-ordered, you can expect to receive your DVD or Blu-ray in early October! These will contain tons of extra footage, interviews, and deleted scenes not featured in the movie. You can order yours at http://www.greatamericanwheatharvest.com/dvdorders/.

The following theaters will be showing The Great American Wheat Harvest film in the upcoming weeks:
Tulsa, OK: September 26 – October 2 – Showing daily – Circle Cinema
Smith Center, KS: September 27, 2:00pm – Center Theatre
Sidney, NE: September 27-28 – Fox Theater (Sponsored by 21st Century Equipment)
Mott, ND: October 6, 7:00pm – Playhouse Theater
Bowman, ND: October 6, 7 & 8 – The Bowman Theatre
Conrad, MT: October 10 – Orpheum Theater
Winterset, IA: October 10 -16 – Iowa Theater during the Madison County Covered Bridge Festival

Ag Groups, Harvest, Video, Wheat

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Talia Goes

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  • The United Fresh Produce Association has unveiled the Board of Trustees to lead the new United Fresh Start Foundation.
  • AgriLife Studios is thrilled to announce the opening of our new web store, www.agrilifestudiosstock.com, offering easy access to our fast-growing library of exclusive agricultural stock photography and video through searchable galleries, custom lightboxes, online purchases and immediate high-resolution file downloads.
  • Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the reappointment of four individuals to serve on the National Genetic Resources Advisory Council (NGRAC), a subcommittee of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and Economics (NAREEE) Advisory Board.
  • CHS will announce its commitment to furthering agricultural education in the United States through a gift of $1.5 million dollars, to be given over the next 3 years to the National FFA Foundation.
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FMC Anthem Singing Contest Winner

Chuck Zimmerman

Lindsay WebberThe winner by popular votes of the 2014 FMC “Stand & Be Heard Anthem Singing Contest” is Lindsay Webber. That $10,000 scholarship prize money is going to come in pretty handy!

“I want to thank FMC for the opportunity. It was such an awesome experience to be able to perform with the other finalists and musicians in Nashville,” said Webber. “The scholarship will make it easier to attend school out of state and the financial support of my education means the world.”

Colfax, Wash., native Webber, 20, spent her high school years as an active member of FFA. She has performed at the Washington State and National FFA Conventions and attends Baylor University majoring in vocal performance.
Along with the other three finalists, Leanna Crawford, Halle Reid and Jessica Ronat, Webber travelled to Nashville to take part in a professional recording experience at the House of Blues Recording Studio. The finalist performances are posted to the contest website and were broadcast nationwide on RFD-TV. The three remaining finalists will each receive $5,000 scholarships.

You can watch Lindsay’s competition video here:

Agribusiness, Education, FMC, Video

The CT Farm Project

Jamie Johansen

Screen Shot 2014-09-19 at 3.57.26 PMThe fertile soils of the Connecticut landscape has sustained generations of farmers who toil from dawn to dusk to work the land and grow the food to feed a hungry state. It also has inspired award-winning photographer Jack McConnell to document the hardscrabble life of farmers. The CT Farm Project is a new exhibit that celebrates the faces and places of farming in Nutmeg State.

Images from the CT Farm Project capture the rugged look, heartwarming feel and timeless character of life on the farm. Captivating B&W portraits of men and women, young and old, are studies in contrast. The deeply personal and moving images are offset in the exhibit with dramatic photographs of familiar farm machinery, animals and implements.

The CT Farm Project documents and celebrates the enormous efforts of present day farmers who care for their animals, maintain equipment, plant fields, harvest crops and market their products to the public. People who are passionate about farming and local food will fall in love with photographs of the CT Farm Project.

“This is an exciting time for farming, especially with the new interest in eating local and the national concerns about climate change that may jeopardize farming in the American heartland and breadbasket,” said McConnell. “More than anything, this project is about people. The farm is their medium. Farmers love the land and they love what they do.”

Photographs from CT Farm Project will be displayed at galleries and public spaces throughout the state with the purpose to support working farmers and raise awareness of the need to protect Connecticut farmland. Working closely with organizations including the Department of Agriculture, Connecticut Farmland Trust and Northeast Organic Farming Association, the CT Farm Project will travel to venues including the Farmland Preservation Celebration, which will take place this Saturday, Sept. 20th. Two public exhibits are currently on display through Sept. 30th – a large collection of 57 photographs can be viewed at the Good News Café & Gallery in Woodbury, and 20 photographs decorate the walls of Firebox Restaurant Gallery in Hartford.

McConnell has visited more than 50 farms throughout Connecticut to date for the CT Farm Project including dairy and cattle farms, orchards and vineyards, produce growers and chicken farms. A video of images from the collection is set to music with an original song titled, “This Life Calls to Me,” which was written and performed by local musician Jack Collins from Chaplin.

Ag Groups, Photography

2014 Borlaug Field Award Honors Scientist Under 40

Jamie Johansen

Screen Shot 2014-09-19 at 3.49.42 PMThe World Food Prize announced that the winner of its award for agricultural leaders under 40 goes to Dr. Bram Govaerts, a native of Belgium now working from Mexico, for his work developing leading-edge, sustainable programs that are transforming subsistence agriculture and unsustainable farming systems in Mexico and other regions of the world into productive and sustainable production operations. Dr. Govaerts’ collaborative work with farmers has made it possible for smallholders in Mexico and other developing countries to escape hunger and poverty and improve their livelihoods.

Dr. Govaerts will be formally presented with the $10,000 “Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application, Endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation” on October 15, 2014, in Des Moines, Iowa, as part of this year’s World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogue international symposium.

Dr. Govaerts, 35, currently serves as Associate Director of the Global Conservation Agricultural Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). The announcement of his selection was made by World Food Prize President Ambassador Kenneth Quinn at the USAID Frontiers in Development Forum on September 18 in Washington, D.C.

In developing his vision to help poor farmers increase food production from their existing farmland, Dr. Govaerts was inspired by the great agricultural scientist and World Food Prize Founder Norman Borlaug’s credo: “Take It to the Farmer.” To that end, Dr. Govaerts was instrumental in framing the Mexican government’s major initiative known as the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro), and, in June 2014, he assumed leadership of the entire program, with responsibility for coordinating the evolution of related projects in Latin America.

Read More

Ag Groups, World Food Prize

More Bacon Festivals Please

Chuck Zimmerman

Blue Ribbon Bacon FestivalThere’s a new bacon festival in town, actually Madison, WI.

Organizers of the Madison Bacon Festival, a Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival event, have announced that tickets are on sale exclusively online at www.madisonbaconfestival.com. The inaugural event will take place at Alliant Energy Center on Saturday, November 1st offering bacon-lovers an opportunity to explore their sizzling obsessions in a creative and celebratory environment. Organized and promoted in partnership between the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival and the Madison community, the uniquely quirky celebration will provide participants with Wisconsin’s largest bacon showcase, bacon lectures, bacon-inspired dishes, bacon competitions, an annual bacon queen contest, live entertainment and bacon fellowship.

Brooks Reynolds, co-founder of the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival, provided an update on the plans surrounding the Madison event, “As always, our focus has been on the BACON and I couldn’t be happier with how it’s coming together.” Reynolds continued, “On one side we have the craft bacons; like Nueske’s, Jone’s Dairy Farms, Berkwood Farms and Des Moines Bacon Company. Then we have some of the industry giants represented as well, such as Oscar Mayer and Farmland. No doubt about it, on November 1st the ‘OHHHH BACON!’ chant will resonate throughout the great state of Wisconsin.”

Event Details

Date: Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014
Hours: 10 am – 5 pm (VIP Opens at 9 am)
Location: Alliant Energy Center, Madison, WI
Wisconsin Badgers vs. Rutgers Scarlet Knights Football Game Will Be Televised
Estimated Number of Bacon Enthusiasts: 5,000+

Ag Groups, Pork

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Talia Goes

Zimfo Bytes

  • The Context Network, a premier global agribusiness consulting firm helping clients achieve exceptional results to advance agriculture, has named Osborn Barr (O+B) as brandingand communications partner.
  • Farmland Partners Inc. announced that it has entered into purchase agreements to acquire two farms in Colorado totaling approximately 1,400 acres for aggregate consideration of approximately $6 million in cash.
  • eGrain, Inc. announces that Drew Earles has resigned as Vice President and the company has named John Hill as the company’s new VP, effective September 24, 2014.
  • Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey today announced that the landowners and partners in the Lake Darling Watershed project in Washington County have received the Secretary’s Water Quality Initiative Leader Award.
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