Agreement Brings Satellite Imagery to AgVerdict

Jamie JohansenAgribusiness, Company Announcement, Satellite, Software

image001 copyWilbur-Ellis Company has reached an agreement with Planet Labs to bring satellite imagery to the AgVerdict® software platform, Wilbur-Ellis’ industry leading technology in agricultural data usage. This enhancement will significantly improve the delivery of satellite imagery to a grower, making the data available in a matter of minutes rather than days.

“We’re excited to work with Planet Labs on this endeavor as the company changes the speed in which agriculture utilizes imagery,” said Michael Wilbur, vice president of Data Services and Field Technology, Wilbur-Ellis. “Timely and frequent imagery will give our growers the advantage to act immediately in order to prevent problems and will help them make more efficient decisions to their crop production.”

This new feature will benefit Wilbur-Ellis customers by providing imagery using “ultra-compact” satellites that will soon scan the planet every twenty-four hours.

From their headquarters in San Francisco, Planet Labs designs, builds and operates a network of satellites they call “Doves.” In January 2014, Planet Labs delivered Flock 1, the world’s largest constellation of Earth-imaging satellites, made up of 28 Doves. To date, Planet Labs has launched 71 Doves.

Josh Alban, vice president of Sales, Planet Labs comments, “Planet Labs brings a unique capability to agricultural markets around the world: high frequency, good resolution and the ability to serve data at micro and macro levels. We are thrilled to work with AgVerdict, a best-in-class platform that makes a strong offering to the Ag retail community.”

Dow AgroSciences’ Trait Stacking Standards for Enlist™

Jamie JohansenAgribusiness, Dow AgroSciences, seed, Soybeans

Screen Shot 2015-02-02 at 9.19.46 AMIn accordance with its mission to provide the highest performing products to growers, Dow AgroSciences announced quality standards for glyphosate trait stacking with Enlist. The company said it will allow Enlist to be stacked with advanced glyphosate traits only. It will not allow stacking with the first generation of the Roundup Ready® trait.

“We are committed to optimizing the Enlist system for growers,” says Damon Palmer, Marketing Director, U.S. Seeds, Dow AgroSciences. “We’ve done it with Enlist Duo™ herbicide with Colex-D™ Technology—a proven, superior herbicide tailored for the grower. Today’s announcement helps ensure the Enlist family of soybean traits will be stacked exclusively with other industry leading traits.”

The market continues to move to advanced glyphosate traits since they were introduced because they have been proven to outperform the original Roundup Ready trait. Technology with newer glyphosate traits, including Roundup Ready 2 Yield® and Enlist E3™ soybeans, show no yield drag or lag.

Read More

Montag Introduces GEN II Nutrient Metering System

John DavisAgribusiness, Nutrient Management

montagNutrient placement company Montag has introduced its new GEN II Nutrient Metering System. The Iowa-based company made the annoucnement during its inaugural Montag Nutrient Placement Conference and 10th Anniversary celebration.

“This new product addresses the needs of the agricultural industry as well as product improvements that we have been working on and are really excited about bringing to the market,” states Anthony Montag, General Manager. “Today, it is very difficult for producers to find valid ways to reduce costs that can be reflected in the bottom-line. A decrease in the amount of fertilizer that is applied is a great option to reduce cost for most producers,” Montag continued.

The GEN II product is the next generation of nutrient metering and provides greater performance and accuracy than prior products. Greater performance and accuracy along with greater serviceability are just a few of the improvements that have been made. The new metering system is designed so that rows may be added easily.

“The real key innovative feature of this GEN II product is the ability to add rows and configure drives,” Montag continues. “You can now invest in a metering platform that can be adapted to your operation as it evolves and grows for years to come.”

You can read more about the family-owned company at its website, www.montagmfg.com.

PrecisionHawk’s Focus on Strategy & Globalization

Jamie JohansenAerial Imagery, Agribusiness, technology, UAS

Thomas_3The folks at PrecisionHawk are excited to introduce their new Vice President of Strategy and Globalization, Thomas Haun. Over the past year PrecisionHawk has worked to really expand their international presence and have done business in Denmark, Colombia, Australia, Argentina, Poland and India.

Thomas is a sales and business development professional with a decade of experience in building new business opportunities, maximizing financial impact & identifying and maneuvering global economic trends. He received his undergraduate degree in Economics and Mathematics and a Harvard MBA.

From 2005 to 2009, Thomas assumed multiple key roles at Northop Grumman that ultimately led to over $100M in new contracts. Following his move to Dupont Pioneer in 2011, Thomas drove over $80M in additional revenue by pinpointing global marketing opportunities, building a scalable agriculture services business, reducing development time-to-market and maximizing overall financial gain.

When asked what interested him the most about PrecisionHawk, Thomas said, “The team. Our range of experiences, deep subject matter expertise, and desire to solve any customer challenge continues to amaze me. This talented group enabled with the latest technology delivers tailored solutions of high quality information and critical insights that help our customers become more successful.”

To learn more about PrecisionHawk and their new addition checkout a complete interview with Thomas here.

New AgGateway Board Preps for an Active Year

Jamie JohansenAgribusiness, Company Announcement

Screen Shot 2015-01-30 at 2.29.40 PMThe new AgGateway board of directors and AgGateway’s executive staff held a face-to-face meeting in Orlando last week to orient new board members and discuss strategic plans for the year. More than 225 companies are now members of the organization, which is focused on eBusiness implementation in key agricultural sectors, including crop protection, crop nutrition, seed, feed, grain and precision agriculture.

The 2015 Board of Directors:
Randy Beard, River Valley Co-op, Board Chair
David Black, CHS Inc., Board Vice Chair
Ann Vande Lune, Key Cooperative, Ag Retail Council Chair
Jeff Griffeth, Co-Alliance, LLP, Ag Retail Council Vice-Chair
Hylon Kaufman, Farm Market ID, Allied Providers Council Chair
Rana Kundu, YASH Technologies, Inc., Allied Providers Council Vice-Chair
Michael Carrabine, I.R.M., Crop Nutrition Council Chair
Shayla Darnell, Koch, Crop Nutrition Council Vice-Chair
Dave Hoyt, United Suppliers, Crop Protection Council Chair
Lori Edwards, Syngenta, Crop Protection Council Vice-Chair
Mary Tangen, DTN, Inc., Grain and Feed Council Chair
Mike Thronson, Heartland Cooperative, Grain and Feed Council Vice-Chair
Patrick Sanders, SST Software, Precision Ag Council Chair
Mike Santostefano , AgIntegrated, Inc., Precision Ag Council Vice-Chair
Greg Erler, Monsanto Seed, Seed Council Chair
Randy Fry, Ceres Solution, Seed Council Vice-Chair
Advisory Members:
Jeff Keiser, Iteris, Past Board Chair, Executive Committee
Ron Farrell, Farrell Growth Group
Rod Conner, AgGateway Global Network
Sarah Novak, American Feed Industry Association

Soil Health Hinges on Farmers

Cindy ZimmermanAudio, Conservation, Corn, NCGA, Soil

shps15-farmersThe first year of the Soil Health Partnership (SHP) enrolled 20 farmers in six states to be demonstration sites for the effort and by the end of five years they expect to have 100. These farmers have agreed to basically be the “guinea pigs” to help other farmers learn from their experiments and innovations.

One of those farmers is Tim Smith of Iowa who says he was anxious to be involved in the initiative from the first time he heard about it.

shps15-smith“I can see the soil conservation benefits and I can see the nutrient reduction benefits, but I think the soil health benefits are what’s going to help sell it to other farmers,” said Smith, who was one of the demonstration farmers on a panel at the Soil Health Summit in St. Louis this week.

Smith believes that improving soil health is critical and just the right thing to do. “In the last 150 our average top soil (in Iowa) has gone from 14 inches down to eight inches,” he said. “We can’t continue that because it will run out if we don’t start taking care of it … any soil loss is not tolerable.”

Smith’s conservation efforts earned him the first National Corn Growers Association Good Steward award presented at last year’s Commodity Classic.

Listen to my interview with Tim here: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/ncga/ncga-shps15-smith.mp3″ text=”Interview with Tim Smith, SHP farmer from Iowa”]


2015 Soil Health Summit Photo Album

Gaining Ground on Soil Health

Cindy ZimmermanAudio, Conservation, NCGA, Soil

shps15-cornell-1Soil health has become a national focus and Cornell University professor of Soil and Water Management Dr. Harold van Es believes it is something that impacts everyone.

“We need to reach a lot of people, it’s not just farmers,” said van Es during the first ever Soil Health Summit in St. Louis this week organized by the Soil Health Partnership (SHP). “Urban soils are very important and a lot our urban soils are very degraded…It’s not only to create a more desirable urban environment but also for people in urban environments to be aware of how important soils are.”

Dr. van Es defines soil health as the capacity of soil to function. “Healthy soil functions well,” he explains. “It allows for good crops to be grown or good trees to be grown in urban environments, it allows for filtration of water, it sustains very important biological functions…and of course, we build our homes on soil.”

Not only is soil health a national focus, it’s gone global this year with the International Year of Soils declared by the United Nations. Dr. van Es encouraged people to get involved in events and promotions being organized by the Soil Science Society of America to celebrate #IYS.

Listen to my interview with Dr. van Es here: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/ncga/ncga-shps15-van-es.mp3″ text=”Interview with Dr. Harold van Es, Cornell University”]


2015 Soil Health Summit Photo Album

USDA-NRCS at Soil Health Summit

Cindy ZimmermanAudio, NCGA, NRCS, Soil, USDA

shps15-honeycutt2The deputy chief for science and technology with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Services is a strong believer in the value of partnerships, especially when it comes to improving the health of our nation’s soils.

“When you look at all of the demands, the production, the breadth of the country, the climatic zones, the different types of cropping systems – it’s more than one individual entity, government or private, can do by themselves,” said Dr. Wayne Honeycutt at the first Soil Health Summit held in St. Louis this week by the Soil Health Partnership (SHP).

Honeycutt is one of the members of the SHP’s distinguished scientific advisory board members and he was thrilled to be part of the first summit because he believes that farmers are the leaders in soil health efforts. “Just being able to hear from our farmers on what’s working for them or not working for them and how we can work with them better is just a real critical part of this effort,” he said.

According to Honeycutt, the use of cover crops to improve soil health continues to grow nationwide. “There’s about 10.3 million acres of cover crops right now in the U.S. but when you figure we have around 340-350 million acres of crop land, that tells you we still have a long ways to go,” he said. “But the good news is that in the last two or three years, cover crop adoption rates have increased exponentially.”

In this interview, Honeycutt talks about why soil health is so critical and how improving it can help in so many ways. [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/ncga/ncga-shps15-honeycutt.mp3″ text=”Interview with Wayne Honeycutt, USDA-NRCS”]


2015 Soil Health Summit Photo Album

USDA Kicks Off Nationwide Organic Survey

John DavisAgribusiness, USDA

usda-logoTo get better information for organic producer programs, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has started its Organic Survey. This news release says the survey is a complete inventory of all known organic producers who are certified, exempt from certification, and transitioning to certified organic production.

“Total organic product sales by farms and ranches in the United States have continued to grow over the last few years, increasing by 83 percent between 2007 and 2012,” said USDA Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden. “These latest census results show the continued interest in organic agriculture among consumers, producers, and businesses. As we look to the future, the important information we gather will be crucial to capturing the strong private and public sector support to sustain the continued growth of this industry.”

Conducted by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), the Organic Survey is a result of this growing demand for organic agricultural products and data. The survey looks at many aspects of organic agriculture during the 2014 calendar year – from production and marketing practices, to income and expenses. It also focuses on the future of organic production by including producers transitioning to certified organic agriculture.

Producers are encouraged to respond if they receive the survey. Farmers and ranchers can fill out the survey online through the secure website, www.agcensus.usda.gov, or send the form back by mail. Recipients are required to respond by mail by Feb. 13, 2015 or online by April 3, 2015.

First Soil Health Partnership Summit Held

Cindy ZimmermanAudio, Conservation, Corn, NCGA, Soil

shps15-welcomeThe Soil Health Partnership (SHP) was officially launched at last year’s Commodity Classic so it will just be one year old in another month. But Nick Goeser with the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) says the concept had a relatively long gestation period.

“The idea for the Soil Health Partnership started in 2011, so within three years we came to the point where we could launch it and it’s been great,” Goeser said during the first Soil Health Summit in St. Louis on Thursday which included farmers, agronomists, and organizations involved in the effort.

shps15-goeserThe farmers at the summit are among the 20 in six states that have made a five year commitment to the project. “The farmers are early adopters and innovators in the area of conservation management,” Goeser explained. “They agree to enroll a 20 to 80 acre field on their farm and allow us to collect soil samples to update our recommendations to farmers.” In addition, the demonstration farmers agree to host field days as part of the project.

NCGA is the administrating organization in the SHP, which was set up with funding from Monsanto and The Walton Foundation, but in the last year the partnership received a Conservation Innovation Grant from USDA-NRCS that has provided additional funds.

Listen to Nick explain more about the SHP in this interview: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/ncga/ncga-shps15-nick.mp3″ text=”Interview with Nick Goeser, NCGA Soil Health and Sustainability Manager”]


2015 Soil Health Summit Photo Album