Precision agriculture products and practices have been enhanced and improved over the past two decades in large part by the work of innovative and driven individuals and organizations. The PrecisionAg Award of Excellence program sheds light on some of the most important people and programs that have helped agriculture realize the full benefits of technology to improve agronomy, efficiency, and … Read More
Farms & Ranches Build Resilience to Drought
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the award of $5.3 million in Conservation Innovation Grants to develop approaches and technology that will help producers adapt to extreme climate changes that cause drought. These grants will fund projects benefiting several states that were significantly impacted by last year’s drought. The United States Department of Agriculture remains focused on carrying out its mission, … Read More
Ad Design Contest Winner Announced
Jim Mills of Agro-Culture Liquid Fertilizers awarded Jennifer Ray, Ag Communication major $500 for her ad design contest. Jennifer Ray, Ag Communication major at California Polytechnic University participated in an ad design contest along with her classmates. Designs we submitted and carefully looked over for overall design, message and effectiveness of the ad. There were all well done, Jennifer’s ad … Read More
Monsanto Ground Breakers Week
Farmers and seed dealers from major U.S. crop production regions recently gathered in St. Louis and Peoria, Ill. for “Monsanto Ground Breakers Week.” The nearly 250 farmers in attendance are part of Monsanto’s on-farm trial program, Ground Breakers, experiencing two new innovations from Monsanto: Roundup Ready Xtend Crop System, and FieldScripts. At the events, farmers participated in educational sessions in … Read More
USDA Prospective Plantings Commentary
A little more corn, a little less soybeans, more wheat and a lot less cotton – that summarizes the USDA 2013 Prospective Plantings report out today. Corn growers intend to plant 97.3 million acres of corn for all purposes in 2013, up slightly from last year and 6 percent higher than in 2011. If realized, this will represent the highest … Read More
DriftWatch Adopted by FieldWatch, Inc
DriftWatch, a voluntary online registry program created by Purdue University Agriculture and Biological Engineering has been given a new home with a new company called FieldWatch, Inc which will lead to a nationwide online crop registry for high-value pesticide sensitive crops. The university’s successful web based program, launched in Indiana in 2008, has been effective in allowing both farmers and … Read More
Valley Introduces New QuickStart Prescription
Valley Irrigation, the leader in precision irrigation, introduces the addition of QuickStart (QS) prescription writing to its Variable Rate Irrigation (VRI) product, allowing growers to customize their water application throughout their field. The Valley VRI Agronomy Team develops the one-time, custom QS prescription based on soil maps, aerial imagery, yield data and other relevant information about the field provided by … Read More
The ROI of Smart Machine Technology
Dr. Terry Kastens is an Emeritus Professor from Kansas State University. He’s back to farming now and spoke during a Learning Center Session at Commodity Classic sponsored by John Deere. The session topic was “Better Data, Better Decisions: the ROI of Smart Machine Technology. One of the first points Dr. Karstens makes is that every new technology requires an investment. … Read More
Students Create Products From Corn and Soybeans
Teams of Purdue University students who created fiber insulation from soybeans and a fireworks casing from corn won the top prizes in the annual Student Soybean and Corn Innovation Contests. The awards were announced at a reception March 20th, 2013 in Indianapolis. The competitions, sponsored by the Indiana Soybean Alliance and Indiana Corn Marketing Council, teach students how to be … Read More
Dupont PrecisionPac Herbicide Solutions
During Commodity Classic this year Dupont Crop Protection surveyed grower attendees and found that more than half of U.S. corn, soybean and wheat growers have changed their herbicide tank-mix strategies within the last three years. Changes include using new, different or more herbicides in the same spray tank. Nearly 67 percent of growers surveyed said they or a farm employee … Read More