E-marketplace Connecting Farmers

Melissa SandfortAgribusiness, Farmers, Resources

A new website recently launched, www.Sproutrade.com, which is a U.S.-based niche e-marketplace to connect farmers, growers and agriculture companies in a similar way as they might through broad e-commerce platforms, such as Amazon. Essentially, it is a way for farmers, growers and agriculture companies to market their products directly to consumers and other companies, via an online platform.

One of the primary advantages is that the site helps farmers, growers and agriculture companies create an online presence without the need for the creation of an individual website or e-commerce platform. Sproutrade.com takes care of all these details, and even provides each company with their own individual page within Sproutrade.

Click here for more.

Topcon partners with PrecisionAg Institute

Melissa SandfortAgribusiness, Company Announcement

Topcon Precision Agriculture has announced support for the PrecisionAg Institute, the industry’s independent global initiative dedicated to the sharing of precision agriculture practices, ideas, research, products, services and success stories.

The company has joined as a “PrecisionAg Institute Partner,” reinforcing its commitment to the greater adoption and efficient, effective use of precision agriculture technology. Topcon joins other leading agricultural companies and will be providing guidance and counsel as activities and initiatives move forward in the months ahead.

No Farm Bill Impacts Conservation Programs

Cindy ZimmermanConservation, Farm Bill, General, USDA

Congress went home to hit the campaign trail last week without taking any action on a new farm bill and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says that means some programs will expire at the end of this month.

“I’m concerned about the fact that some of the smaller conservation programs will not be authorized, nor will there be any money appropriated for them, which will limit our capacity to do good work in conservation,” said Vilsack. “We know there’s continued interest in CRP, but we will be unable to provide any new sign ups for CRP.” USDA’s Farm Service Agency notified state and county offices last week that they will will not be able process any new enrollments for Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts after September 30.

Secretary Vilsack is frustrated and disappointed that House leadership failed to allow a vote on the bill passed by the agriculture committee, and he thinks they have ulterior motives. “I don’t think it’s simply issues involving nutrition assistance,” he said. “I think the House leadership also has plans to significantly cut and reduce support for farm programs – conservation programs, commodity title, as well as the crop insurance title.”

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) told reporters last week before Congress called it quits that they would deal with a farm bill after the election because he did not believe there were 218 votes to pass either an extension or new legislation. “The current situation that we face is that we’ve got people who believe there’s not enough reform in the farm bill that came out of committee, and others who believe there’s too much reform in the bill that came out of committee,” Boehner said. “But when we get back, we will deal with the issue of the farm bill.”

Your Go-To Precision Ag Resource: Ag Leader Dealers

Chuck ZimmermanAg Leader, Insights Weekly

Insights Weekly

When you set out to buy a new product there are many different ways to gather information and even product reviews. You can ask your neighbor, “Google it” and turn to industry magazines and newsletters. You can even try to call one of those automated phone systems, press “0” and try to speak with a real person.

But what’s better than walking into your local ag retail store and speaking with an educated, trained Ag Leader dealer about the latest in precision ag products? That’s right, Ag Leader has a dedicated, professional network of dealers who can help you decide which product offering is right for your individual needs, and keep you up-to-date on the latest software and upgrades.

Kevin Klemmensen, Ag Leader dealer with L&D Ag Service in Minnesota, recently attended a dealer training at the Ag Leader Academy and recounts his experience and what it means to his business.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Kevin here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/agleader/ag-leader-7-12-klemmensen.mp3″ text=”Interview with Kevin Klemmensen”]

So before you exhaust countless hours searching the web trying to find which product fits the bill for your farm, visit with your 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.

AgGateway’s New Grain Council

Melissa SandfortAgribusiness, Company Announcement

AgGateway recently launched a new Grain Council in order to identify, develop and implement standards and guidelines to bring eBusiness efficiencies to grain, oilseed and renewable-fuel companies.

The new Grain Council will work to identify and define industry business processes, electronic business messages, and information standards that support those processes. Importantly – as with other AgGateway councils, the Grain Council charter includes the commitment from participating parties to follow through and integrate standards-based messaging into their business processes.

USDA Expands Drought Assistance

Melissa SandfortAgribusiness, USDA

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced $11.8 million in additional financial and technical assistance to help crop and livestock producers in 22 states apply conservation practices that reduce the impacts of drought and improve soil health and productivity. The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides this assistance through its Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP) and Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

Since early summer, USDA has announced a variety of assistance to producers impacted by the drought, including opening conservation acres to emergency haying and grazing, lowering the interest rate for emergency loans, and working with crop insurance companies to provide flexibility to farmers. Just a few weeks ago, USDA announced $16 million in financial and technical assistance to immediately help crop and livestock producers in 19 states cope with the adverse impacts of the historic drought. In July, the Secretary announced USDA would allow producers to modify current EQIP contracts to allow for grazing, livestock watering, and other conservation activities to address drought conditions, and also authorized haying and grazing of WRP easement areas in drought-affected areas where haying and grazing is consistent with conservation of wildlife habitat and wetlands. The announcement expands upon these efforts and brings the total assistance to nearly $28 million.

See the additional NRCS drought assistance received by each state here. Learn more about drought categories here.

Producers and landowners are encouraged to visit the NRCS website or stop by their local NRCS office to find out if they are eligible for this new funding.

Kinze’s Autonomous Harvest System

Melissa SandfortAgribusiness, Company Announcement, Corn

Kinze Manufacturing, Inc. has continued its progress on Kinze Autonomy, refining the capabilities of its groundbreaking autonomous row-crop solution and undertaking release previews on three large Illinois farms this harvest season. The system was recently showcased for the first time at a farm in Monmouth, Ill.

As the world’s first large-scale, truly autonomous row-crop solution, Kinze’s autonomous system is capable of completing many tasks with minimal direct human input, including planting, nourishing, maintaining and harvesting crops.

• Follow: The autonomous grain cart system follows the combine through the field at a safe distance.
• Unload: When the combine operator is ready to unload the grain into the cart, they press the “Unload” button on their tablet. The autonomous grain cart system then speeds up and pulls alongside the combine, matching its speed to the combine’s and positioning the cart under the combine unload auger. The combine operator can then start filling the cart.
• Park: After unloading, the combine operator can instruct the autonomous grain cart system to return to the edge of the field. From there, the cart can be unloaded into a semi-trailer for the grain to be hauled away from the field.
• Idle: When instructed, the system will come to a controlled stop at its current location and wait for further instruction.

As farm communities shrink and farmers face increasing challenges finding skilled labor during the harvest season, Kinze Autonomy aims to help them work as efficiently as possible. The autonomous grain cart system allows farmers to keep their combine running during the brief harvest window without needing an extra person in the field to run the tractor and cart. Even better, the grain cart system never gets tired, and will operate as precisely at the end of the day as the beginning. For farmers who need to burn the midnight oil to get their harvest in, the autonomous grain cart is an able partner.

USDA to Change Report Release Times

Cindy ZimmermanUSDA

USDA is changing the release time of certain key statistical reports beginning in January 2013.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced that the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB) will begin issuing several major USDA statistical reports at 12:00 p.m. EDT beginning in January 2013. The current USDA release time of 8:30 a.m. EDT will remain in effect until January 1, 2013. USDA statistical reports affected are: World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates, Acreage, Crop Production, Grain Stocks, Prospective Plantings, and Small Grains Summary. The time for livestock reports currently released at 3:00 p.m. will not change.

Between June 8 and July 9, 2012, USDA sought public comment on the release times for several major statistical reports in response to changes in market hours by major commodity exchanges. Stakeholders submitted 147 comments through the NASS online response site and via letter and e-mail. You can read those comments here.

It’s an iPhone World

Melissa SandfortZimmPoll

Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “Do you plan to buy an iPhone 5?”

Our poll results: 20% said yes, upgrade my old iPhone; 4% said yes, get first iPhone; 24% said no, I’m Android; 32% said no, keep old iPhone; and 21% said they don’t want a smartphone.

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “Have high fuel prices had an impact on your farm/business?” We’ve seen fuel prices go up quite a bit lately so we want to know – is it impacting your daily farm/business? What do you think?

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

Call Congress From Combine Campaign

Cindy ZimmermanAudio, Corn, Farm Bill, Government, NCGA

Congress is back in session for a couple of days this week, but all indications are that no action will be taken on a farm bill at this point before the current bill expires.

Knowing how fluid the situation in Washington can be, that’s no reason to give up hope yet and National Corn Growers Association president Garry Niemeyer says they are urging farmers to call Congress from their combines to make their voices heard. “This being Farm Safety Week, pull your combine over and shut it down, but call your congressman,” Garry said. “Tell them exactly what you think. That’s what we need.”

Garry says they are completely frustrated by the lack of action on a farm bill in the House. “This is just ridiculous,” he said. “We have big problems out here and (members of) Congress have really not done their job.”

Go to FarmBillNow.com for more information about contacting your congressional representative.

Listen to Garry’s comments here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/ncga/combine-call.mp3″ text=”NCGA president Garry Niemeyer”]