How do we feed a growing world?

Melissa SandfortZimmPoll

Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, ” What cooperatives play a role in your life/business?”

Our poll results: Ten percent said Electric/water/utilities; ten percent said Farm Credit/credit union; five percent said Farm supplies; twenty percent said Energy/biofuels; three percent said Farm commodity; three percent said Other; thirty-five percent said Two or more of the above; and fifteen percent said None.

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “What is most important for feeding growing world population?” As of today, it is estimated at a little over 7 billion; by 2050 it is estimated it will be slightly over 9 billion. With a steadily increasing population, how do we feed everyone? What do you think?

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

Celebrating Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program

Melissa SandfortAgribusiness, USDA

Acting Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Rachel Jacobson joined private landowners, conservation organizations and natural resource agency leaders to celebrate partnership efforts in association with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program in Missouri, recognizing the Missouri/Mississippi Rivers Confluence Conservation Partnership as a signature demonstration of partnering for America’s Great Outdoors Rivers Initiative.

The Missouri/Mississippi Rivers Confluence is the convergence of the two largest rivers in North America encompassing nearly 300,000 acres of lands predominantly in private ownership.

The Missouri/Mississippi Rivers Confluence Conservation Partnership seeks to promote a balance between fish and wildlife habitat and agriculture and community development. Since 2004, the Missouri/Mississippi Rivers Confluence Conservation Partnership has protected more than 21,000 acres of private land, and restored and enhanced more than 8,000 acres of wetland habitat on private land in Pike, Lincoln, St. Charles and St. Louis counties. Wetlands provide migratory habitat for millions of migrating waterfowl, shorebirds, marsh birds and neotropical migrants in spring and fall. The area supports 68 state-listed species and five federally-listed plants and animals.

Benefits of Long-Range Forecasts

Melissa SandfortAgribusiness, Company Announcement, Software, weather

MDA EarthSat Weather and EarthRisk Technologies, a pioneer in the research, analysis and visualization of extreme temperature and weather pattern risks, announced a strategic partnership. Under the partnership, MDA EarthSat Weather will distribute EarthRisk’s cutting-edge weather risk platform to help traders in natural gas, power, and agriculture sectors project extreme weather patterns up to 40 days in advance.

Powering the alliance is EarthRisk’s newly developed TempRisk 4.0 software platform. TempRisk views the atmosphere at both high and low altitudes around the globe for variables ranging from pressure patterns and jet stream position to air temperature and thunderstorm activity. Analysis of these variables against historical weather records dating back more than 60 years results in improved risk assessment for either extreme cold or heat for regions of interest. TempRisk 4.0 has incorporated a new comprehensive empirical forecast model that intelligently combines the most important signals for a specific region and forecast window, significantly improving accuracy over analog methods alone.

More Conservation Acres for Wildlife Habitat Restoration

Melissa SandfortAgribusiness, USDA

Photo by Lynn Betts, California

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack underscored the Obama Administration’s commitment to partnerships in conservation by announcing the allocation of 400,000 acres to support conservation and restoration of wildlife and their habitats as part of the Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP. Under Vilsack’s leadership, the USDA has enrolled more than 12 million acres in CRP, a voluntary program available to agricultural producers to help them use marginal and environmentally sensitive land to bring conservation and economic benefits for their land and communities. The announcement of 400,000 state acres for wildlife enhancement (SAFE acres), fulfills Vilsack’s commitment made last spring to commit 1 million acres for special initiatives to restore grasslands, wetlands and wildlife habitat.

With 400,000 SAFE acres available, USDA will work with producers and landowners to target habitat for high-priority species like the lesser prairie chicken and sage grouse, as well as game species like pheasants and quail that providing hunting opportunities and support rural jobs. Existing projects in 20 states will be able to add up to 280,000 combined acres for all projects, including prairie, wetlands, forest and savanna habitat restoration. In addition, more than 100,000 acres were added to target species as diverse as northern scarlet snakes, ferruginous hawks and the American woodcock.

Find Precision.AgWired.com on Facebook!

Melissa SandfortAgribusiness, social media

Precision.AgWired.com is now on Facebook, delivering news and special event coverage on the topic of precision agriculture in all its forms.

In fields across the country, more growers are making precision farming a way of life, no matter how large or small their operation, no matter what the crop. With increased input costs and the pressure to do more with less, growers are continually looking for ways to improve farming efficiencies, production and profitability. precision.agwired.com was created with this in mind.

Now on Facebook, you can find timely precision farming information, links to other resources and coverage from industry trade shows. In addition, you’ll find interviews with technology experts and leading growers who have incorporated precision technology into their operations.

Visit us on Facebook to find out how “Precision.AgWired.com” for your farm.

Celebrating National Co-op Month

Cindy Zimmermanagronomy, Audio, FS Green Plan Solution, Growmark

Each October, cooperatives across the United States celebrate the cooperative difference, business model and the contributions of cooperatives to their communities during National Co-op Month and this year continues the celebration of 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives with the slogan “Cooperative enterprises build a better world.”

As one of the nation’s largest cooperatives, GROWMARK has been celebrating all year long, so we talked with president and chairman of the board Dan Kelley about why co-ops are so important for agriculture, both nationally and globally. Kelley says he was surprised to learn this year that nearly a billion people around the world are members of some type of cooperative. In addition to celebrating a year and a month dedicated to cooperatives, Dan says GROWMARK has been celebrating 85 years of existence as a cooperative.

The second largest division of GROWMARK is their agronomy division with the FS Seed and FS Green Plan Solutions brand, which provides fertilizers, seed and crop protection products and advice for producers. Kelley says while 2012 has been a challenging year for farmers thanks to the very hot and dry conditions during the growing season, cooperative members remain optimistic. “The future of agriculture is bright and the future of agricultural cooperatives is bright,” he says. “We have a great opportunity as we think about the growing economies in the world and the growing population that we have to feed.”

GROWMARK‘s core cooperative membership is in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, but in recent years have expanded into other states including Colorado, Pennsylvania and Maryland and a solid membership in Canada as well.

Listen to an interview with Dan Kelley here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/growmark/gmk-oct-12-kelley.mp3″ text=”GROWMARK President Dan Kelley”]

5th Asian Conference on Precision Agriculture

Melissa SandfortAgribusiness, Events

The 5th Asian Conference on Precision Agriculture (ACPA) will be held June 25-28, 2013, on Jeju Island, Republic of Korea. As an initiative in precision agriculture research and application in Asia, ACPA aims to introduce and discuss Asian model of precision agriculture, connect people, and improve academic collaboration between different institutions and disciplines. The conference connects representatives from business and industry, research, education, consultation, production, and government organizations.

Precision agriculture has been established well in North America, Europe and Australia, where production fields are relatively large. Precision agriculture has attracted interest and has seen some limited adoption in Asian countries. Reasons for this interest are social concern regarding environmental problems, global demands for environmentally safe agriculture, and labor shortage due to a decreasing and aging rural population. These factors are driving the change of agriculture to site-specific field and crop management in Asian countries with unique agricultural conditions and consumer needs perhaps more than in North America, Europe, and Australia. Concept of precision agriculture are widely applied also to horticulture and livestock production. The 5th ACPA is designed so that Asian countries can learn from other continents, share experience among member countries, and discuss issues for better future of Asian agriculture.

SPADE Project Seeks to Improve Data Exchange Processes

Melissa SandfortAgribusiness, Company Announcement, Data Collection, Fertilizer, Harvesting, seed, Spraying, Tillage

AgGateway’s Precision Ag Council has launched a new project that will improve the data exchange processes that drive the use of precision agriculture field equipment for such major operations as seeding, tillage, spraying, fertilizing and harvesting. The Standardized Precision Ag Data Exchange (SPADE) project is intended to streamline and encourage adoption of precision ag practices.

Currently, costs for exchanging data in the world of precision agriculture are high due to the lack of common implementation guidelines, data transfer protocols, message standards and standard reference data. Producers report that it is difficult or nearly impossible to move data from one system to another.

The ultimate objective of the project is to make the benefits of precision ag available to all growers and ag retailers. This will be done by reducing the complexity of the process and lowering the cost of entry.

Companies interested in joining the SPADE project should contact Marilyn Hunter, AgGateway’s Enabling Services Director at Marilyn@aggateway.org.

New GPS Satellite Modernizes Network

Cindy ZimmermanGPS, Raven, technology

The U.S. Air Force has launched a United Launch Alliance Delta IV-Medium rocket carrying the third Global Positioning System IIF satellite which will provide more accurate navigation for military and civilians, including farmers who rely on the satellites for precision agriculture applications.

“Thousands of farmers across the globe depend on GPS to guide their equipment and provide better accuracy during planting, application and harvest seasons,” said Ag Leader Technology Marketing Communications Manager Lori Costello. “New satellites introduce enhanced capabilities and ensure a continued level of high performance, which is reason for Ag Leader and the growers who utilize our precision ag tools to support the recent launch.”

The Boeing IIF GPS 2F-3 is the most advanced GPS satellite to date, delivering greater navigational accuracy through improvements in atomic clock technology; a more secure and jam-resistant military signal; a protected, more precise, and interference-free civilian L5 signal, and an extended design life, according to Boeing.

“With this third IIF satellite now on orbit, Boeing continues to deliver more precise navigation and timing capabilities for military and commercial uses worldwide,” said Craig Cooning, vice president and general manager of Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems.

Paul Welbig, Director of Slingshot Operations for Raven Industries, says launch of the new satellite demonstrates a continued commitment to modernizing the aging GPS system. “Benefits such as better reliability and improved performance will result, but it will take time before those are apparent to users,” said Welbig. “It’s important to know that most of the newer receivers utilized for precision agriculture today are already compatible with these new satellites so users will be able to enjoy these benefits as they become available.”

The current GPS network includes a total of 31 satellites, with the oldest being almost 22 years in orbit. When the new GPS 2F-3 satellite launched this week becomes operational later this year, it will replace one that has been in service since 1993. GPS 2F-4 and 2F-5 are scheduled to launch in May and November of next year.

“As each 2F satellite becomes operational, we continue the seamless transformation of the GPS constellation into an even more accurate, reliable and durable navigation resource for the U.S. military and the global civilian user community,” said Cooning.

Precision Ag Action Summit 2013

Melissa SandfortAgribusiness, Events

The second Red River Valley Research Corridor Precision Agriculture Summit is being co-hosted by the Red River Valley Research Corridor and North Dakota Farmers Union.

Attendees will hear from experts and presenters on a number of topics, including the state of precision agriculture, upcoming trends, technological applications, and opportunities for successful implementation. Attending the summit offers hands on and technical demonstrations of precision agriculture technologies and applications and explanations of applications, procedure and tools designed to lower producer cost and create a more efficient environment for farm production.

This event is open to the public and we strongly encourage agriculture producers, researchers, agronomists, manufacturers, business leaders, economic developers, and students who are interested in hearing from experts, exchanging ideas, and learning more about precision agriculture technology, methods, and practices to join us at the 2013 Precision Agriculture Summit on January 21 & 22 in Jamestown, North Dakota.