American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) president Bob Stallman and National Farmers Union (NFU) president Roger Johnson will be masters of ceremony for the Farm Bill Now rally on September 12 by the Capitol Reflecting Pool The rally is an effort to build public awareness of the need for Congress to pass a new, comprehensive, five-year farm bill before current one … Read More
Using Long-Term Trends as Planning Guide for 2013
There was a lot of talk during the Farm Progress Show this year about the epic drought and how it was impacting growers across the country. Brent Wilson, DuPont Pioneer technical services manager, was out interacting with growers and when talking with them heard quite often that they just want to put the epic drought of 2012 behind them. But … Read More
Harvesting Corn at Farm Progress Show
The weather cooperated big time this year at the Farm Progress Show so that field demonstrations got in a full schedule. We had a nice breeze to tone down a hot day in the field during the show. Corn harvest demonstrations began at 11am and there were crowds on hand to watch the large combines, tractors and grain carts in … Read More
Nod to Trailblazers Helping Up and Coming Precision Ag Companies
New players in the game of precision agriculture owe a lot of thanks to some of the bigger companies that went before them. Some of those giving credit for their success of helping farmers use precision agriculture to get the most out of their fields are the folks at Solum. At the recent International Conference on Precision Agriculture, Chuck caught … Read More
MapShots to Offer MAPP… Mobile App… for Its Software
One of the issues about some of the data collection methods for precision agriculture is the fact that many times the data still has to be manually transferred from data device, such as a USB, to office software. The folks at MapShots hope to change that. At the International Conference on Precision Agriculture in Indianapolis, IN, Chuck talked to the … Read More
Raven Innovation Summit
Raven Industries is holding an Innovation Summit this week at company headquarters in Sioux Falls, SD. Cindy is there and will be sharing some of what’s new with Raven this week. I spoke with Denton Schwiesow (not pictured), U.S. Sales Mgr., during the International Conference on Precision Agriculture about the event. Denton says the company will bring in their distribution … Read More
Drought, CTIC Tour Open Up Learning Opportunities
If there’s anything positive about the drought this year (and I realize that’s a real stretch) it might be what producers and companies are learning from these extreme circumstances. In addition, events, such as the Indian Creek Watershed Project Field Tour, fittingly set when conservation is a hot topic of discussion gives even more opportunities to discuss how to overcome … Read More
Wyffels Hybrids Provides Precision in Imprecise Times
Last summer, much of the Midwest cornbelt had too much rain. This year, too many places can’t buy a drop. How do you make precision farming plans when Mother Nature is such an imprecise factor? Our friends at the Wyffels Hybrids Corn Strategies event in Vincent, Iowa say it comes down to being prepared to change. During an interview with … Read More
Drought Hurts Crops, Allows Weeds to Grow
Farmers in the Midwest have been hit hard with drought this summer. Not only has the dry, hot weather withered the crops, but the lack of rain also kept a lot of pre-emerge herbicides from working properly. During the recent Anthem Field Plot Tour, FMC officials got the chance to talk with farmers throughout the Midwest about these kinds of … Read More
FarmSight on International Stage
Attendees at the International Conference on Precision Agriculture got the full overview of the John Deere FarmSight strategy from Mark Stelford who does Solutions Marketing in the Intelligent Solutions Group. I visited with Mark afterward. Mark says that when you look at some of the megatrends in agriculture and outside the industry like demand for food, fiber and fuel between … Read More