The New AgWired and New AgWired App

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 440You have probably noticed that AgWired looks “different.” It is. Very different.

The ZimmComm team has completely re-built AgWired with hard work from our webmaster. This project was undertaken to consolidate our news network under the AgWired brand and provide a growth platform for the future. We still have some tweaks to do as we get comfortable with a new version of WordPress which allows us to manage multiple websites simultaneously.

Animal Agriculture

The biggest news though is that we’ve moved WorldDairyDiary.com inside AgWired under the url, www.animal.agwired.com. We will now use this website for our coverage of all animal agriculture production including all species. This greatly increases not only the visibility of our coverage of this sector but allows new opportunities for our sponsors.

Precision Agriculture

Additionally, we’ve taken PrecisionPays.com “in-house” under the url, www.precision.agwired.com. We will continue publishing the latest news and information about this fast growing segment of agricultural production under the AgWired brand.

In both cases, the old links now forward to the new domain address. All RSS subscribers and anyone who has bookmarked them will not have to change anything to continue getting the content they want.

Energy

On the energy front we’re re-designing DomesticFuel.com which will retain its current url at this time.

AgWired App

Another very cool part of this move has to do with the AgWired App. Besides the iOS and Android store app we’ve had for years, you can now create the AgWired App on your mobile device yourself. It’s easy. Just visit AgWired.com on your mobile device of choice and a popup will ask if you want to create a desktop icon. AgWired will then open with a click of the app in a very user friendly format. Full instructions are included in this week’s ZimmCast and the instructional video on YouTube.

Please let us know what you think of the new AgWired!

Listen to this week’s program here or watch the video below: The New AgWired

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.

Subscribe to the ZimmCast podcast here.

Animal Agriculture, Audio, Video, ZimmCast, ZimmComm Announcement

Heading to the Center of the Pork Universe

Cindy Zimmerman

wpx14We are heading to the Center of the Pork Universe this week to join some 20,000 pork producers and industry professionals from 32 countries for the 2014 World Pork Expo.

“World Pork Expo is a showcase of pork production,” says National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) president Howard Hill. “It offers a great opportunity for pork producers to get a crash course in what’s new.”

The Expo, which is sponsored by NPPC, features the world’s largest pork-specific trade show with some 375 commercial exhibits in more than 310,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor exhibit space. New this year is the World Pork Expo Universe Passport, offering visitors a daily chance to win $500. Expo General Manager Alicia Newman says attendees can pick up a passport in the registration area, located in the Animal Learning Center.

“As attendees travel around World Pork Expo, they can get their passports stamped at the booths of participating companies,” says Newman. “Then they can bring their completed passports to the NPPC booth in the Agriculture Building, get a prize and be entered into the daily drawing.”

In addition to the trade show, Expo offers free, educational seminars on a wide range of topics from manure handling or exports, to sow-herd management and swine health. Youth education programs, judging contests and pig shows are part of the World Pork Expo Junior National, which set another record this year with 2,947 entries from across the nation.

This will be our seventh World Pork Expo on AgWired.com and the first time it will be featured on our new website Animal.Agwired.com. Thanks to our sponsor Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Inc. (BIVI) for once again allowing us to bring this important pork industry event to our readers.

Check out the 2014 World Pork Expo photo album.

wpx-bivi-tag

Animal Agriculture, Boehringer Ingelheim, NPPC, Pork, World Pork Expo

NCGA Fields-of-Corn Photo Contest

Cindy Zimmerman

ncga-photosIf you shoot it, they will vote – in the new National Corn Growers Association Fields-of-Corn Photo Contest.

NCGA is calling all photographers to help tell the story of farming field corn in America with this brand new photo contest. Submit your favorite high-resolution photos of corn growth from seed to harvest and the families that grow it and you might just win the $500 grand prize. Entries will also be considered for prizes with cash awards for the top three entries in five categories including: Farm Family Lifestyle, Farming Challenges, Growing Field Corn, Scenery/Landscape, and Still Life from the Farm.

Photos will first be judged by the public via online Facebook “Likes.” The Top 10 photos in each category will then be judged by an impartial panel of professionals in the fields of journalism, marketing, advertising and agriculture.

Deadline for contest entries is November 30, 2014 – what are you waiting for? All the details can be found by clicking here. Register, upload your best farm photos and repeat as often as you like. I already did one!

Corn, NCGA, Photography

New Holland Features 2014 Diesel of the Year Engine

Jamie Johansen

cursor_16_engineNew Holland Agriculture equipment will soon feature the exceptionally efficient Cursor 16 engine which has been named Diesel Of The Year® 2014 by Diesel magazine. Developed by sister company FPT Industrial, the new 16-liter, six-cylinder in-line engine received this prestigious accolade in recognition of its technological excellence.

Fabio Butturi, Chief Editor of Diesel magazine, said, “The Diesel Of The Year®award is judged on technical innovation and design, with FPT Industrial’s Cursor 16 achieving this in the most exciting way: a 16-liter engine delivering 18-liter power in a 13-liter package. A compelling proposition and, in the words of FPT, a game changer.”

The Cursor 16 excels in power management, combustion efficiency and low fuel consumption, resulting in lower total costs of ownership for the customer. To do this, it uses FPT Industrial’s patented High Efficiency Selective Catalytic Reduction (Hi-eSCR) technology, which has been researched, designed and developed in-house to comply with the stringent Stage IV/Tier 4 Final and Euro VI emissions regulations.

The Cursor 16 delivers this powerful and efficient performance in a compact package, offering a best-in-class power-to-weight ratio although it is one of the most compact engines in its range.

Carlo Lambro, Brand President of New Holland Agriculture, said, “New Holland customers get the full benefit of us having an engine specialist such as FPT Industrial in house. Our sister company has developed innovations and technologies that have changed the industry and, with the Cursor 16, our customers will once again enjoy the best in performance and economy when we introduce the new models equipped with this exceptional engine.”

Agribusiness, Equipment, New Holland

Register for IFAJ Congress in Scotland

Chuck Zimmerman

2014 IFAJ CongressHave you registered for the 2014 IFAJ Congress, “Innovations From a Small Island?” I have.

This message is especially directed to members of the American Agricultural Editors Association. If you’re planning to attend please get your registration completed. We need to work on filling the Congress. There is plenty of room for more attendees!

So for you members of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting or Livestock Publications Council or North American Agricultural Journalists or even NAMA or ARC, think about going to your first ever international farm journalist convention. You will not regret it. We’re talking farm tours like you’ve never seen as well as the ability to meet with ag journalists in the web, publication and broadcast world from other countries. It is a real professional improvement opportunity.

If you’ve got any questions about this annual even feel free to ask Cindy or myself. We’ve attended for years now and it is well worth it.

IFAJ, International, Media

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes

Zimfo Bytes

  • MGEX announces the third consecutive month of record breaking volume in Exchange history.
  • The third Borlaug Summer Institute on Global Food Security will be held June 8-21 at Purdue University for 30 graduate students from across the country taking on the challenge of helping to find solutions to world hunger.
  • Three Cover Crop Workshops aimed at Iowa producers are being held June 10, 11, 12 in Storm Lake, Waterloo, and Bettendorf, IA respectively.
  • The 2014 Answer Plot Program by WinField is underway and will continue to build upon the program’s wide array of educational programming and trials.
Zimfo Bytes

Zimfo Bytes

Talia Goes

Zimfo Bytes

  • The NFI Salmon Council continues to expand its category marketing of farmed and wild caught salmon with the addition of new members Blumar USA and Platina Seafood USA.
  • Organizers of the International Floriculture Expo have announced plans to co-locate the 2015 and 2016 editions of the floral industry’s leading education program and trade show with the United Fresh Produce Association’s United Fresh Show, starting in Chicago June 9-11, 2015 at McCormick Place.
  • CropLife America joined by associations from fertilizer, ag retailer, equipment, and other sectors – have agreed to proceed with the formation of a new group called the Precision Ag Coalition.
  • The American Soybean Association welcomed the announcement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that the agency will award $6 million to universities and state cooperative extension services for the development of web-based tools to assist farmers in choosing new programs within the Agricultural Act of 2014.
Zimfo Bytes

AG CONNECT Fastest Growing U.S. Trade Show

Jamie Johansen

agconnectAG CONNECT Expo & Summit has been named the overall fastest growing biennial U.S. trade show for 2013, in Trade Show Executive magazine’s Fastest 50 awards. It was among only 13 shows with a “Triple Crown” win in all award growth categories: total attendance, exhibit space and number exhibitors, and ranked in the top 10 for each of the categories.

The 2013 event saw attendance nearly double from the previous years, while setting show records for exhibit space, number of exhibitors, education tickets and co-located industry events.

AG CONNECT 2013 also earned a spot on the just-announced list of 25 Fastest-Growing Expositions by net square footage compiled annually by the online Trade Show News Network (TSNN). It was also named to the TSNN Top 250 U.S. Shows list for net square footage, coming in at number 97.

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) owns and produces AG CONNECT Expo & Summit. AEM shows include the international CONEXPO-CON/AGG construction exposition, ICUEE-The Demo Expo and CONEXPO Latin America.

AEM, the National Corn Growers Association and the American Soybean Association announced that Commodity Classic and AG CONNECT Expo & Summit would join forces. The inaugural event is set for March 2016 in New Orleans.

Ag Groups, Commodity Classic

All Tech With Corn

Chuck Zimmerman

cutclogoWhere to next on the agriblogging highway? The Corn Utilization Technology Conference. That’s where. With thanks to the National Corn Growers Association.

The focus of this year’s conference is wet and dry milling technologies and of course, new uses. Speaking of new uses . . . I was searching around for laptop, tsa-friendly back packs and found one from Mobile Edge made with Dupont Sorona material. From the Mobile Edge website:

DuPont Sorona is made partially with Agricultural Feedstocks – Corn. This requires 30% less energy during production than Petrochemical products such as Nylon or Polyester, which reduces greenhouse emissions by 63%!

Mobile Edge designed their new Checkpoint Friendly Laptop Case Collection with this new renewable resource, reducing our dependency on oil and petrochemical products. The Sorona fibers are soft and extremely stain resistant with high strength and stiffness qualities.

Bio-PDO™ process consumes 40% less energy than the chemical PDO process it replaces.

My job next week will be to interview the researchers and see if I can get them to speak layman language to describe their projects. I’ll be posting here and on Corn Commentary, the NCGA blog. One person I look forward to interviewing is Kristin Meadors with the Kentucky Distillers Association. She’s delivering the keynote address. Yay, corn for bourbon!

“The bourbon industry’s iconic utilization of corn makes it a perfect platform in which to kick-off three days of lively discussions among the corn industry’s leading researchers, processors and business representatives,” said NCGA Research and Business Development Action Team Chair Tom Mueller. “We are excited to have Kristin Meadors discuss her industry’s impact on our economy and why this corn- based spirit continues its popularity at home and abroad.”

Ag Groups, Corn, NCGA

Crop Scouting – Using All Your Precision Ag Data

Melissa Sandfort

Insights WeeklyThe evolution of precision ag has impacted how growers and ag professionals accomplish many tasks. We’ve seen in-field crop scouting evolve from a notepad and pencil, to a GPS enabled tablet/mobile device to simply record crop and pest observations. Is it adequate for you to just document observations? Want to precisely navigate to each hybrid planted? Want to navigate to particular treatment zones? Need to navigate to an area that you’ve been struggling with in previous years?

Being able to reference valuable precision ag data from multiple field operations and years is critical to know where and how to scout. This reference information, along with recorded observations, will help you better comprehend the right management decisions to maximize your operations profitability.

Luke James, Ag Leader Software Sales Manager, says growers can record all their scouting observations, crop growth status, etc., then use those records to write a targeted prescription or have it to reference at a later date.

Listen to James explain

James also says it’s real-time data referencing.

Listen to James explain

James explains how SMS Mobile will save growers time, help them be more efficient, and add money to your bottom line.

Listen to James explain

The SMS Mobile Software provides you with the flexibility of displaying multiple reference maps at once while crop scouting. SMS desktop software users can export nearly everything in their software, including data from different brands of equipment to SMS Mobile for in-field viewing.

Interested in learning more about SMS Mobile? Please visit our website to learn more, sign up for a free introduction to SMS Mobile webinar, download a free trial version of SMS Mobile or contact us at 515-232-5363 or SMSsupport@agleader.com or reach out to a local Ag Leader Dealer.

Become a fan of Ag Leader on Facebook today, and get the latest precision ag videos on the YouTube channel. For more information about Ag Leader products and services, or to visit the blog site, go to www.agleader.com.

Ag Leader, Agribusiness