As both the House and Senate Agriculture committees are marking up their versions of a farm bill this week, that was the number one issue for farm broadcasters meeting in the nation’s capitol for their annual Washington Watch. Mary Kay Thatcher with the American Farm Bureau Federation sees few major differences between the two committee drafts released last week. “If … Read More
Syngenta Builds on Garst Legacy
Even as the Syngenta-owned Garst and Golden Harvest® brands are being launched under the revised Golden Harvest brand, Syngenta intends to uphold the quality, reliability and legacy that have become synonymous with the Garst brand and the Garst Seed Advisor. “Roswell Garst’s commitment to customers – to be a trusted advisor in addition to a seed dealer – is the … Read More
Northern Plains Nitrogen to Build New Facility
Northern Plains Nitrogen (NPN) officials have announced to build and operate a $1.5 billion nitrogen fertilizer production facility near Grand Forks, N.D. The world-scale production facility will include a 2,200 ton per day ammonia plant plus urea and Urea-Ammonium-Nitrate (UAN) production facilities. North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple said, “This is an exciting opportunity for Grand Forks, the State of North … Read More
ZimmComm Announces Summer Intern
We are so pleased with the response to our new agri-blogging internship program. It was tough to choose just one for the summer semester, but we finally decided on Maggie Seiler – a sophomore at Kansas State University dual majoring in agricultural communications and journalism and animal sciences and industry. Maggie grew up on a dairy operation outside of Wichita … Read More
Snow Woes Slow Planting
Nothing like a little snow in May to really slow down a planter! This photo from Minnesota was posted last week on the Case IH Facebook page. Despite the snow, Minnesota farmers did manage to get two percent of their corn crop in the ground last week, but they should have over half of it planted by now. Nearly 50% … Read More
Farm Safety App Could Save Lives
Save lives in a rollover? There’s an app for that. Researchers at the University of Missouri have developed an application for smartphones that uses GPS systems to locate farmers who have rolled their tractors. The app, called VRPETERS (Vehicle Rollover Prevention Education Training Emergency Reporting System), uses sensors and GPS capability built into smartphones that can detect rollovers. Once the … Read More
More R&D from BASF Acquiring Becker Underwood
The recent acquisition of Becker Underwood by BASF is more than just putting the two companies together. It means more research and development as each is able to look at the other’s advancements and see how they might be able to combine products for maximum efficiency “Both companies are bringing together a lot of existing technology that we’re starting to … Read More
Opening up Global Ag Data Sharing
At the kickoff of the G8 Open Data for Agriculture conference this week, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a new virtual community to give increased public access to food, agriculture, and rural data. “This new online community is a big step toward opening information for agriculture, making it public in useable formats,” said Vilsack. “This will increase the value of … Read More
Weather Continues to Put Damper on Planting
Planting progress continues to be slowed by wet and cold weather in most of the major corn producing states. According to USDA, just 5% of the U.S. corn crop was planted as of Sunday, only a percentage point of difference compared to the previous week. Last year at this time, nearly half the crop was in the ground and normally … Read More
Nutrient Management with Late Planting
Planting is definitely running behind normal in the Corn Belt, but it’s nothing to worry about just yet. “Just stick to the original plan” when it comes to nutrient management,” says John Grandin, Senior Field Sales Agronomist at GROWMARK, Inc. “If the original plan calls for spring-applied anhydrous ammonia, then stick with spring-applied anhydrous ammonia.” However, Grandin points out the … Read More