BASF Agronomist and Central Illinois Farming

Leah Guffey

Ahead of Commodity Classic in San Antonio last week, BASF Crop Protection held the eighth in its Science Behind media event series with the theme of The Advanced Acre.

12807770804_be98529644_qJeremy Hogan, Innovation Specialist and Agronomist with BASF in Central Illinois, works with farmers to deliver agronomic and product solutions to their operations. Jeremy and I discussed last year’s crazy growing season weather that ended up producing a record crop. BASF is already helping growers prepare for a successful 2014 growing season by planning for all the possible scenarios that could cause problems, such as glyphosate-resistant weeds. Listen to my interview with Jeremy here: Interview with Jeremy Hogan, BASF

12807460983_1f11784dd9_qT.J. Shambaugh is a 7th generation central Illinois farmer. After graduating from Purdue he came back to the family farm. He works closely with Jeremy and BASF to make his family farming operation be the most profitable for them. TJ and his father have a unique approach to their operation, with TJ handling the front end from seed selection, planting and and how they will plant each seed.  His dad works the back end of the operation, from running the combine at harvest to marketing the sale of the finished product. Listen to my interview with TJ here: Interview with TJ Shambaugh, Central IL Farmer
BASF at the 2014 Commodity Classic Photos

Audio, BASF, Commodity Classic, Crop Protection, Farming

Exciting Opportunities in Agriculture

Chuck Zimmerman

David HollinrakeJust what does the world want from us? Sounds like a lot more food. This theme was consistently brought up in a lot of sessions during the Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum last week.

One of our opening speakers was David Hollinrake, vice president, ACO Marketing, Bayer CropScience LP. He told me, “The main theme of this week was really all about the exciting possibilities that exist in agriculture. We in the farming community are faced with a daunting task and that is to feed 9.6 billion people by the year 2050.” Putting that into perspective we’ve got about 7.5 billion today. There is a lot of work to do!

In David’s stage remarks he challenged us to think about agriculture not only in a traditional way but in a potential way of what it can be. He says agriculture is sexy. Yeah, I agree with that. Dave says we need exciting new technologies and a to foster a spirit of collaboration and cooperation. We also need passionate young people to come into the field.

You can listen to David’s remarks here: David Hollinrake Remarks

You can listen to my interview with David here: Interview with David Hollinrake

bayer-issues-buttonThe Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum brings together a broad audience of agricultural journalists to learn about and discuss current issues. This year’s theme is “What the World Needs.” Look for more stories from this year’s event coming soon.

2014 Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum Photos

Agribusiness, Audio, Bayer, Farming, Food

BASF Helps Growers Plan for Success

Cindy Zimmerman

classic14-basf-ajNobody in business plans for failure and farmers are no different.

“We have to plan for success,” says BASF Technical Crop Production Specialist AJ Woodyard. “We have to take that mindset again this year of looking at what is my plan for success this growing season and how am I going to implement that strategy to best maximize yield on my farm.”

During the BASF Science Behind the Advanced Acre event prior to Commodity Classic last week, AJ talked about how higher yields will be more important to growers this year than ever before. “Prices aren’t where they have been so getting the most return from a bushel standpoint is going to be very important,” he said.

AJ talked about BASF’s advanced weed control options, advanced plant health, and the economics of seed treatments. “When we look at the economics and the return on seed treatments, we find that with today’s commodity prices and at various yield levels, there’s likely a nine out of ten chance that seed treatment is going to pay for itself. That’s pretty good odds,” he said.

Listen to my interview with AJ here: Interview with AJ Woodyard, BASF

Here more from AJ’s presentation here: AJ Woodyard, BASF Science Behind presentation


BASF at the 2014 Commodity Classic Photos

Audio, BASF, Commodity Classic, Crop Protection, Seed

Nominations Open for Social Media Farmer of the Year

Chuck Zimmerman

Social Media Farmer of the YearZimmComm New Media is proud to announce sponsorship of the Social Media Farmer of the Year Award. The award program is being launched today by Food Nutrition & Science.

The new award recognizes farmers who have incorporated social media, digital media and internet strategies to achieve their business objectives including growing revenue, sharing information for more effective farming practices, and promoting positive awareness of the industry.

Nominations for the award are now being accepted. Farmers can nominate themselves or a colleague http://www.foodnutritionscience.com/2014award/. The deadline for nominations is March 31, 2014. The winner will be presented with a trophy and other prizes at the FMI Connect show in Chicago on June 11, 2014.

“Social media has provided farmers with a unique opportunity to communicate directly with other farmers, customers and consumers,” says Phil Lempert, editor of Food Nutrition & Science. “This award will honor their innovation and outstanding efforts that not only results in a greater person-to-person dialogue, but elevation of the industry as a whole.”

More farmers are turning to social media to help sell their products, but also speaking directly to end users about their farming practices and the origin of their food.

A panel of global business, media and food and farming industry leaders will evaluate all entries and the overall winner will be selected based on innovation and success in the use of social media for business purposes.

The Social Media of the Year Award is also being sponsored by Monsanto, Bolthouse Farms, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, AgChat Foundation, Inc., and our AgWired.com.

Agribusiness, Farming, Social Media, Social Networking

Operation Blue Force with New Holland

Chuck Zimmerman

New Holland Operation Blue ForceThe agriblogging highway is taking me to Bakersfield, CA this week to participate in Operation Blue Force. This is a New Holland training experience for dealers and on Wednesday some of us in ag media will get our turn to practice driving some new equipment.

We’ll head out to a farm early in the morning and spend the day rotating between different equipment stations. I’ll be shooting some videos and interviews. Most exciting is to have ZimmGlass in the field for the first time.

Agribusiness, New Holland

Get Your Ag View

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 430He’s no stranger to the agricultural communications world but he is new to you as Ag View. He’s Ken Rahjes and I sat down with him in San Antonio last week to learn what he’s up to with this new venture.

Ag ViewKen has not only a farm background but a background in farm broadcasting. After taking a break from that career he’s back in action on the internet. That doesn’t mean he’s given up on doing some over the air broadcasts though. In our conversation you’ll learn about how he’s starting this new venture and plans to grow it. Listen in to learn all about it and how you can support Ken’s new company.

You can listen to this week’s program here. Get Your Ag View

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

Audio, Media, ZimmCast

Living Without Regrets: Managing Weed Resistance

John Davis

young1It seems like a pretty common sense idea in weed management: cleaner soybean fields will equal better yields when harvest time comes around. But Bryan Young, a professor of weed science from Purdue University who conducted the BASF-sponsored learning session, “Clean Fields, High Yields: The Keys to Solving Your Weed Problems in 2014,” at Commodity Classic told the farmers attending that they have to break it down into three steps: 1. Accept the reality of what is going on in your fields (especially as it pertains to weed management); 2. Develop a plan; and 3. Put that plan into action.

“In accepting reality, you need to acknowledge when you might have resistance and stay ahead of it,” he said, adding that denial is the biggest problem many farmers have. He said if producers start off with the right mindset, they might not have to face regret later on. “I’ve never talked to a grower who’s had resistance that’s said to me, ‘Well, I wouldn’t have done anything different.'”

Once you accept the fact that you’ve got weed resistance, Bryan said you need to put together a plan to fight that resistance, admitting it’s complicated, but if you understand the different herbicides and the best sites of action for the weeds you have, developing what you are going to do starts to come into order.

Finally, you need to put the plan into action. Bryan said growers need to have a Plan A, B and C ready, because you have to be adaptive. “Our best intentions can go awry, because Mother Nature was going to put too much or not enough rain on a residual herbicide, so we just have to know what our Plan A, Plan B or Plan C are,” he said.

Another common mistake that producers make when facing weed resistance is not doing a good enough cost-benefit analysis when deciding how much they should spend to kill the weeds. While it might cost them $30 an acre more to treat a weed-resistant field, the yield results can more than make up for the costs they would have spent.

Finally, Bryan said farmers also need to look at weed treatments while different crops are rotated in those fields because of the carry-over when beans are back in there.

Listen to more of my interview with Bryan here: Bryan Young, Purdue
BASF at the 2014 Commodity Classic Photos

Agribusiness, Audio, BASF, Commodity Classic, weed management

2014 FMC Stand and Be Heard Contest

Leah Guffey

classic14-fmc-noelleFMC says “We’re Investing in farming’s future℠ with our new Anthem® and Anthem® ATZ herbicides and $25,000 in college scholarships as prizes in the 2014 Stand & Be Heard Anthem Singing Contest.”

Last year’s winner – Noelle Goodson, a freshman at Cornerstone University – was on stage singing the National Anthem opening the general session at the 2014 Commodity Classic where Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack addressed more than 7,000 attendees. She said it was a privilege and an honor to be able to perform for such a large crowd of people. Noelle says her time with the National FFA Choir helped her prepare for the future.

Applications for the 2014 “Stand and Be Heard Contest” are now being accepted. To learn more about entering the contest go to www.fmccrop.com/contest.

Listen to my interview with Noelle here: 2013 FMC Anthem Winner, Noelle Goodson

Listen to Noelle sing the National Anthem here: Noelle Goodson sings at Commodity Classic General Session


2014 Commodity Classic Photos

Audio, Commodity Classic, FMC, Video

BASF Spotlights Future of Farming

Cindy Zimmerman

classic14-basf-drawingOver 7,000 people had the opportunity to visit the BASF Crop Protection USA booth at the Commodity Classic to learn more about the future of farming – by video and through the eyes of children.

The newest video from BASF, featuring fun facts about how far the industry has progressed and how we must advance in order to meet the needs of future generations, was on a movie screen size display. Behind it was a wall displaying creative pictures artwork from children across the country of how they see the future of farming.

BASF asked children what they thought farming would look like in 50 or 100 years and got dozens of creative, innovative and colorful concepts that were on display in the booth. The winning submission, by 11-year-old Moise Dougherty of Minnesota, was chosen on Saturday morning.

See more photos here:
BASF at the 2014 Commodity Classic Photos

Watch the new BASF video here:


BASF at the 2014 Commodity Classic Photos

Agribusiness, BASF, Commodity Classic, Crop Protection, Video

Mid-South Farm & Gin Show Manager

Chuck Zimmerman

Tim PriceMeet Tim Price. He’s the manager of the Mid-South Farm and Gin Show and Executive Director of the Southern Cotton Ginners Association. Tim is very passionate about agriculture and his community. You will hear that in our interview at the start of this year’s show. And for those of you who do not know what a cotton gin is, you will after you listen in.

Tim says that over the two days of the show there will be nearly 20,000 people attend and that it is a family affair. I vouch for that. This is a real down to earth farm show with a relaxed atmosphere and with 400 exhibitors there is a lot to see and learn. I’m going to get a wrap-up interview with Tim before leaving the show which I’ll share later. In the meantime, please listen in and I hope you enjoy our conversation.

You can listen to my interview with Tim here: Interview with Tim Price

2014 Mid-South Farm & Gin Show Photo Album

Coverage is sponsored by FMC

Ag Groups, Audio, Cotton