Farm equipment sales are down significantly this year, but the head of the Association of Equipment Manufacturer‘s Ag Sector remains optimistic about the industry. “We’re in the business of feeding and harvesting food and you need equipment to do that,” says Charlie O’Brien, AEM Senior Vice President and Ag Sector Lead. “Even though the numbers for this year are down, … Read More
Forage Aid From Latham Seed
The New Holland Trade Center tent was packed full of ag company’s like Latham Hi-Tech Seed during the 2014 World Dairy Expo. I stopped by there booth to learn more about the family-owned company’s latest seed genetics and products. Corey Catt is a forage specialist for Latham and has been in the seed industry his entire career. “What I do … Read More
Hick Chick Chat talks Feed Beets
While at the World Dairy Expo my colleague, Jamie, stopped by to learn more about feed beets as feed additive. According to Lisa Butzer, marketing manager Feed Beets are a sweet improvement to dairy rations and margins. Feed Beets are a high dry-matter beet hybrid grown for dairy cow rations. When added to rations as a forage source, you can … Read More
Science, Education Core Missions for Verdesian
Verdesian has a mission as part of being a science-based company. And part of that mission is education – education of both journalists and farmers. To learn more about why this is so important, I spoke with Michael Berry, senior marketing manager with Verdesian, who hosted about half a dozen ag media at Los Alamos National Laboratory. As Berry succinctly … Read More
Digi-Star’s Rich History of Weight Sensors
Digi-Star took home a 2014 Innovation Award at the World Dairy Expo for their moisture tracker. They also hosted a media event during the show and that is where I met up with Mac Moore, president and CEO of Digi-Star, who spoke with me about the honor and what the company has in store for producers across the country. “Digi-Star … Read More
From Lab to Field – Verdesian’s Technological Journey
I recently had the opportunity to learn about Verdesian’s philosophy of how they take technologies and customize them to agriculture. I should take a step back and mention that Verdesian has a strong relationship with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in the process of taking their defense research and “spinning it off” for agricultural applications. As Nigel Grech, executive vice … Read More
CASE IH Connects with Canadian Farm Writers
Beautiful Prince Edward Island (PEI) was the spot for the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation 2014 Annual Conference and CASE IH was a Russet sponsor of the event. The sponsor categories were aptly named this year in honor of PEI’s largest agricultural industry – potatoes – and Russet is the top. Two shiny red CASE IH tractors decorated the lawn of … Read More
How Verdesian has Filled an ‘NP & K’ Void
Verdesian Life Sciences is a plant health plant nutrition company. According to CEO and founder JJ Grow, from the start their plan was to create a portfolio of companies that had really good technology focused on nitrogen and phosphorous efficiencies as well as delivery systems, elicitors and innocolents. Or “things that help fixate nitrogen”. Beginning in 2011 when Grow was … Read More
Hick Chick Chat: New Pavilions at WDE 2014
This edition of the Hick Chick Chat heads to the 2014 World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin. It’s the premiere event for the dairy industry. This year, exhibitors at the 2014 World Dairy Expo are the first to break in the New Holland Pavilions. My colleague, Jamie Johnansen was in Wisconsin this past week for the 2014 event. A unique addition … Read More
NACD Meets With EPA on WOTUS
Representatives of the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) met with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials last week to express concerns on behalf of member conservation districts regarding the proposed “Waters of the U.S.” (WOTUS) rule. “We thought is was a very good meeting and we appreciated the opportunity to express some concerns,” said NACD President Earl Garber, a licensed … Read More