#Classic17 Sees Big Things for Credenz Soybeans

Kelly MarshallAgribusiness, Audio, Bayer CropScience, Commodity Classic, Soybeans, Uncategorized

Monty Malone was in San Antonio for Commodity Classic to talk to growers about the latest in Credenz soybeans. Last year more than 500 trials in 6 states showed that, when compared head-to-head, Credenz LibertyLink soybeans offered a 2.2 bu/A yield advantage over Asgrow Roundup Ready 2 Xtend beans. Next year the company is going even bigger with 10 new varieties of smart genetics soybeans, and 2018 promising even more.

The new portfolio will offer a good mix of characteristics and traits, Malone explains.

“We very aggressively want to keep as broad as possible mix of trait within our portfolio, so we encourage growers to rotate those herbicide traits where they can sustain that tool on their farm. If they go wall-to-wall with their production system and don’t have any rotation then they will eventually loose that tool.”

To learn more listen to Cindy’s full interview with Malone here: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/classic17-bayer-credenz.mp3″ text=”Interview with Monty Malone, Bayer”]

2017 Commodity Classic Photo Album

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Winners of Bayer’s Real Yield Sweepstakes at #Classic17

Kelly MarshallAgribusiness, Audio, Bayer CropScience, Commodity Classic, Uncategorized

LibertyLink Real Yield grand prize winner Gary Tretter (center) with November cotton winner Andy Carthel and November soybean winner Mark Hardy

Last year was the second year for the LibertyLink Real Yield Sweepstakes, which gave away 200 acres of LiberyLink soybeans or cotton to two growers each month. The grand prize winner for the year was Gary Tretter from Illinois, who received the 500 acre grand prize and a trip to Commodity Classic in San Antonio last week, along with the other monthly winners.

“This was our second year with [LibertyLink soybeans]. We had 650 acres of double crop the year before last and then we were 100 percent soybeans last year with LibertyLink and they were great. We’ve been with the Roundup system for years and the LibertyLink fixed the problem we had with resistant weeds,” Tretter touted.

Gary Tretter of Murphysboro, Illinois is the December winner of the LibertyLink® system for soybeans. He grows soybeans and wheat on his 4,000-acre farm, primarily focusing on soy with no-till farming. Gary entered the Real Yield Sweepstakes at the Bayer booth during Farm Progress Show and is very excited to win more LibertyLink enabled soybeans for this year’s crop. He switched to LibertyLink in 2015 and has since seen great weed control against waterhemp and marestail.

[wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/classic17-bayer-winner.mp3″ text=”Interview with Gary Tretter”]

2017 Commodity Classic Photo Album

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Soil Health Partnership Expanding to 100 Farms

Kelly MarshallAg Group, Soil Health Partnership

The largest farmer-led soil health research project is expanding by 35 more farms. The Soil Health Partnership will now have a total of 100 farms working to understand sustainability and how it can lead to profitability.

“We believe our long-term data on real, working farms will result in a better understanding of the links between soil health and our farmers’ crop yields, economic investments and environmental risk,” said Nick Goeser, SHP director. “Our enrolled farmers are the backbone of this project, both for their participation in the data collection process, and for serving as ambassadors in this agricultural shift.”

Recent financial commitments from organizations and companies with common interests in sustainability through soil health are making it possible for SHP to expand to 100 farms a full year ahead of schedule. This includes a $4 million pledge in 2016 from the Midwest Row Crop Collaborative, backed by Cargill, the Environmental Defense Fund, General Mills, Kellogg Company, Monsanto, PepsiCo, Unilever, Land O’ Lakes, The Nature Conservancy, Walmart and the World Wildlife Fund.

StollerUSA Goes Live from #Classic17

Kelly MarshallAgribusiness, StollerUSA, Video

Stoller USA pulled out all the stops to incorporate the latest technology into their session at Commodity Classic, so we could hardly do any less. In her Facebook LIVE video Shelli Male, Directer Marketing and Communications Manager at Stoller USA, took us through their Start, Grow, Finish system for healthy, well-balanced plants. Watch the video to learn more about what they can provide growers looking to get the top yield potential from their fields.


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John Deere’s Prospective on Farm Economy & Tech

Jamie JohansenAgribusiness, Audio, Commodity Classic, Equipment, John Deere, Machinery, Video

“I’m an advocate for agriculture because I think it’s the finest industry in the world,” words spoken by John Lagemann, Senior VP, Sales & Marketing for the Agriculture and Turf Division, who has 35 years with John Deere and that in itself is a true testament.

John had a busy schedule at the 2017 Commodity Classic, not only wearing his John Deere hat, but also representing the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) Board of Director’s as Agriculture Chair. However, not too busy to spend some time talking about the overall farm economy and how John Deere is helping their farmers farm smarter.

“We believe the longterm tailwinds of agriculture are still strong. Agriculture is still a cyclical business. It’s cyclical because demand and supply on a world basis matters. Right now we are going through one of those cycles that is tough for people within the industry. Having said that, I believe the professionalism through our producers is better than it has ever been. They have learned to deal with variables in pricing of commodities, in interest rates, in input costs, etc. They have learned to manage those risks and as a result, the health of our producers is strong.”

John said that margins matter and the best thing industry partners can do is help improve those margins. Moving into the topic of technology, John said it really started in the early 2000’s with guidance. “Now you have the whole wave of communication. Technology and bandwidth has improved. Communication has become a lot more available. And you have the whole realm of agronomic data that helps our producers manage input costs more. If you understand your agronomic data and can measure those margins, then you can translate that into a better margin based on inputs and outputs.”

Deere & Company has again been included in Fortune Magazine’s ranking of the World’s Top 50 Most Admired Companies. Listen to my complete interview with John to learn more about how they are instilling the legacy and admiration of John Deere into the future of agriculture. [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/cc-17-jd-lagemann.mp3″ text=”Interview with John Lagemann, John Deere”]


View and download photos from the event here: 2017 Commodity Classic Photo Album

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Bayer Makes Big Announcements from #Classic17

Kelly MarshallAgribusiness, Audio, Bayer CropScience, Commodity Classic

“It’s important to take care of agriculture’s greatest resource– our growers and their communities. Along with helping them with success on their operation, we’re committed to continuing the success of farming’s future through community outreach programs that give back and help them obtain the tools necessary for success,” Jody Wynia from Bayer CropScience said to attendees of Commodity Classic in San Antonio last week.

The success of LibertyLink– it is now in 85 brands of corn, cotton, canola and soybeans, has inspired Bayer to see to the success of the stewards of the land. Bayer will be donating 5 cents of every bag of LibertyLink soybean to the American Hearth Association’s Healthy for Good program for a total maximum donation of $500,000, a movement that will raise heart health awareness in rural communities.

As part of this partnership Bayer promoted the LibertyLink Sweepstakes, offering growers a chance to win up to 500 acres worth of the LibertyLink system for either cotton or soybeans. Winners were honored Commodity Classic event, along with the Iowa FFA for their efforts in promoting the sweepstakes.

Listen to all of Bayer’s big announcements here: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/classic17-bayer-announcement.mp3″ text=”Bayer Announcements from Commodity Classic”]

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Bayer/Monsanto Talk About the Future from #Classic17

Kelly MarshallAgribusiness, Audio, Bayer CropScience, Commodity Classic, Crop Protection, Monsanto, seed

Adrian Percy, head of research and development at Bayer CropScience, and Robb Fraley, Monsanto chief technology officer held an informal press conferene at Commodity Classic to discuss the proposed nuptials of their companies. Both Percy and Fraley spoke highly of Monsanto’s seeds and traits and Bayer’s chemistry, but took pains to point out how much better they will be when those strengths are combined.

“One of the problem with those systems is the coordination of those systems has never really been enabled,” Percy pointed out. “So we’ve consistently had herbicides arriving on the market and traits arriving perhaps a decade later. With this combination we have the opportunity to co-develop, to do this kind of work consecutively, so we can develop on one side the trait and on the other the herbicide.”

“One of the things we’ve come to the conclusion of in the last three or four years is, that as a company we just needed to invest more if we’re going to bring these innovations to farmers,” Fraley says of Monsanto. “As we’ve gone through [the merger proposal] and looked at it– we’ve had a long history of working together, we admire their innovation and their capabilities. It’s that combination that’s going to allow us to invest more. It’s that combination that’s going to let us invest smarter and it’s that combination, really importantly, that’s going to bring integrated solutions together, which, I think, is really key to brining product enhancements to farmers.”

Promising integrated solutions has been a hallmark of this merger from the beginning, but Fraley paints of picture of what that will truly mean. He compares these solutions to what Amazon offers, lots of choice, lots of options, plenty of transparency, suggestions for better future shopping, reduced costs and a simplified process.

Listen to the full press conference here: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/classic17-percy-fraley.mp3″ text=”Bayer/Monsanto Merger Press Conference”]

2017 Commodity Classic Photo Album

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AEM Highlights Top Priorities from #Classic17

Kelly MarshallAEM, Audio, Commodity Classic, Equipment, Farm Bill

Anita Sennett and Nick Tindall represented the Association of Equipment Manufacturers as a partner of Commodity Classic last week. In a press conference the two pointed out the importance of the agriculture manufacturing industry on the U.S. economy. A new study, which will be released in its entirety on March 9, shows that 27 percent of manufacturing in the U.S. is for farm equipment, employing more than 114,000 people and contributing 21 billion to the overall economy.

It’s that message AEM will push in the coming year as they, too, join the conversation around the Farm Bill.

“A lot of people forget that agriculture matters to folks who don’t live on farms,” said Tindall. “I think that being from the heavy industry, heavy manufacturing sector we have the opportunity to go into offices and interject the angle that farm economy is very important to hundreds of thousands of people, as the economic study points out, who work in the agriculture manufacturing sector.”

AEM is also interested in ensuring wireless access comes to rural communities. As equipment becomes more and more complex, access to wireless affects a machine’s ability to function at its fullest extent.

Learn more about AEM’s plans for the future here: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/classic17-aem.mp3″ text=”Association of Equipment Manufacturers Press Conference”]

2017 Commodity Classic Photo Album

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AFBF Graduates Partners in Ag Leadership Class

Kelly MarshallAFBF, Video

The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) is celebrating the graduation of nine young agricultural leaders from their Partners in Advocacy Leadership class— and if AFBF isn’t celebrating, I am. That’s because my husband, Brian Marshall, was one of the participants who studied the four learning modules designed to develop leadership skills and understanding of theories and philosophies, mostly by traveling to New York, Washington D.C., Brazil and Hawaii over the last two years without me.

Jeremy Barron, Jennifer Bergin, Emily Buck, Cameron Edwards, Chris Pollack, Terisha Driggs McKeighen, Derek Sawyer, and Julie White also put in many hours learning to tell their stories in an effort to shape our nations food and farming policies and I’m guessing their families are excited to get to see them again too!

While I missed my husband I’m also excited about the things he learned. He and his classmates made web pages, learned to be interviewed by members of the press, and created content to link consumers to farmers. Below is a sample of some of that hard work.


@StollerUSA Showcases Start, Grow, Finish

Kelly MarshallAgribusiness, Audio, Commodity Classic, StollerUSA

Mike Lewallen is a sales and marketing development representative for Stoller USA who attended Commodity Classic to tell growers about the advantages of using hormones to improve yields. Twenty-five years ago Stoller discovered nutrition alone wasn’t enough to bring out the high-end yields they were looking for, so the company began to create formulations that encourage growth at the from the Start of planting, through the Growth stage and then to Finish strong.

“We feel like in any cropping system if you start your plant off growing properly, because that’s where your first loss of yield incurs is at germination, so if we can overcome and start that plant off better, then we’ve got a better chance of making more yield or prevent yield loss in the growth stage of the plant,” Lewallen said as he described their Start, Grow, Finish program.

Listen to my full interview with Lewallen to learn more about how hormones can help a crop: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/cc-17-lewallen.mp3″ text=”Interview with Mike Lewallen”]

Perry Galloway is a grower from Arkansas who can testify to the effectiveness of the Stoller products with amazing yields like 108 bushel soybeans in 2015. “I’m fortunate enough to have held several yield titles in corn, soybeans, wheat and grain sorghum, and Stoller was involved in all of those– the Start, Grow, Finish program or at least major parts,” Galloway says.

Galloway says he Starts strong with seed treatments or in-furrow treatments for cell enlargement and perfect plant hormone balance. During the Grow season he adds BioForge to eliminate plant stress and other products to stimulate hormones and fertility, as well as cell division. To Finish strong Galloway applies a sugar mover product to increase test weight on his corn and soybeans. The program is clearly working well, as his records show.

To learn more about Galloway’s Grow, Start, Finish program listen to my full interview with him here: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/cc-17-galloway.mp3″ text=”Interview with Perry Galloway”]

2017 Commodity Classic Photo Album

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