New Members Inducted into AEM Hall of Fame

Kelly MarshallAEM, Ag Group, Award, Equipment

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) is inducting two new member into their AEM Hall of Fame. These individuals are being honored for their contributions to the off-road industry, their legacy of innovation, service and leadership.

ray-hagie Ray Hagie is the founder of Hagie Manufacturing LLC. Although he never intended to bring the world’s first self-propelled sprayer to the market, his life pursuit of solving problems led to just that. In 1944 Ray opened Hagie’s Hybrid seed corn plant, then, during the labor shortages of WWII, he developed a self-propelled “personnel carrier”to detassel corn more efficiently. When Dow released 2,4-D Ray envisioned a device that would allow the product to be applied more easily. That lead to the self-propelled sprayer and Hagie Manufacturing in 1947.

Committed to the community, the environment and the industry, Ray served in numerous leadership roles throughout his career including as an Iowa state representative and senator, chairman of the Iowa Manufacturers Association and on the Iowa State University Board of Governors.

bob-vermeer Robert “Bob” Vermeer is the chair emeritus of Vermeer Corporation. He played an integral role in bringing that company to where it is today. Under his leadership, sales grew nearly 13 times- thanks to his program to evaluate and coach dealers. His innovations also led to advancements in finance making equipment more readily available globally. He also began various community service programs, such as Vermeer Chaplain Program, the Vermeer Charitable Foundation Scholarship Program and the Vermeer Spirit of Caring Award.

Bob has served as Chair of both the Association of Equipment Manufacturers and the Iowa Business Council. In addition, Bob has been a member and officer for several boards, including Central College Board of Trustees, Dordt College Board, Calvin Theological Seminary Board of Trustees and the Pella Chamber of Commerce.

“AEM is proud and privileged to honor the pioneering individuals who have invented, managed, built and led the off-road equipment industry,” said AEM President Dennis Slater. “Their vision and dedication have contributed significantly to the growth and strength of our industry and economic progress and quality of life around the world; and their legacy serves as an inspiration for our leaders of tomorrow.”

Agrible Links Up, from #NAFB16

Kelly MarshallAgrible, Agribusiness, Audio, NAFB

nafb-16-agribleChuck Zimmerman interviewed Jason Little with Agrible just a few months ago, but at the recent National Association of Farm Broadcasting Trade Talk event, Little had something new to share. Agrible’s Morning Farm Report is now available through the John Deere Operations Center.

“I have yet to met the grower who wants to enter the information twice– and quite honestly, most of them don’t even want to do it once.  So as an industry, more and more, you’re starting to see people talking back and forth.  We have a number of integrations that are done, with My John Deere, with ADM and their system, so we can pull information from there and pre-populate that grower’s account for them.  And it just makes it easier,” Little told Chuck.

Growers who sign up for the Morning Farm Report can click through to the John Deere site, chose Agrible as a “trusted partner,” and have information uploaded for them. The Morning Report offers a wide variety of programs to help make farm decisions. The Field Forecast tool give a two week weather forecast for a specific field, including a field history report. Tractor Time is a logistics tool that offers information about the load bearing capacity of a field- helping growers see what they can get in and do. The Yield Engine is a virtual crop, providing yield projections by July and Spray Smart gives hour-by-hour wind conditions for three days out.

Customers already using the Morning Farm Report say it’s a simple process. Learn more about it for yourself by listening to Chuck’s full interview here: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/nafb-16-agrible.mp3″ text=”Interview with Jason Little, Agrible”]

View and download photos from the event here: NAFB Convention Photo Album

Coverage of the NAFB convention is sponsored by NAFB Convention is sponsored by FMC

Farmobile Releases Real-Time Dashboard

Kelly MarshallAgribusiness, Data

farmobileIn the ever changing world of precision agriculture, Farmobile has raised the bar still higher.  They have announced an EFR Dashboard-  the first real-time dashboard that allows growers to visualize their field data.   The new product helps farmers with insights to increase efficiency  by saving on input costs, maximizing yield and monitoring data.  It is available now and current users can get an instant upgrade immediately.

Every farm has a unique combination of inputs–such as production practices, seed varieties, planting dates, and seeding populations–that produce the best return on investment. Using the new dashboard, farmers can easily compare yield performance, relative to these input and management decisions to correlate cause and effect and to validate which best practices and mix of inputs maximizes outcomes.

“Data is quickly becoming the lifeblood of ag tech,” said Jason Tatge, CEO of Farmobile. “Farmers have to be able to reasonably assess what has happened historically in order to understand yield and planting patterns. With the EFR Dashboard, farmers can take their complete data sets collected by Farmobile, and use them to truth their hunches. We’re helping farmers leverage data to optimize their farm’s profitability.”

FMC Investing in Future of Farming

Cindy ZimmermanAudio, FMC, Fungicides, NAFB

nafb-16-trade-talkFMC Agricultural Solutions proudly sponsors the National Association of Farm Broadcasting Trade Talk each year to help support the efforts of the agricultural media to keep farmers informed.

It’s also a great opportunity for FMC to talk about products in the pipeline to support the future of farming, such as bixafen, a new pyrazole carboxamide fungicide that belongs to a new generation of succinate dehydrogenase inhibitors (SDHI). “Bixafen is a very strong product that is highly effective on rust,” said FMC Product Development Manager Dr. Terry Mize. “We’ve tested it in cereals, corn and soybeans with excellent results and we are very excited that in 2-3 years we hope to have a brand new fungicide for the marketplace.”

FMC recently began the registration process for Bixafen after acquiring exclusive rights from Bayer CropScience to develop and distribute the new product for row crops in the United States and Canada. “It’s very important to have as many modes of action as possible … so Bixafen just adds to the arsenal to allow rotation of chemistries,” said Mize. FMC has greatly expanded its fungicide offerings in recent years for row crops and specialty crops, such as Fracture for tomatoes, strawberries, grapes and almonds.

FMC plans to submit registrations for several other new, proprietary crop protection active ingredients in the next three years. Learn more in this interview: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/nafb-16-fmc-mize-bixafen.mp3″ text=”Interview with Terry Mize, Bixafen”]

NAFB Convention Photo Album

Coverage of the NAFB convention is sponsored by
NAFB Convention is sponsored by FMC

ASTA Highlights Future Policy at #NAFB16

Kelly MarshallAg Group, ASTA, Audio, NAFB

ASTA 1st Vice Chair Tracy Tally and CEO Andy LaVigne

ASTA 1st Vice Chair Tracy Tally and CEO Andy LaVigne

The American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) CEO and First Vice Chair traveled to Kansas City, Missouri last week to take part in the National Association of Farm Broadcasting‘s Trade Talk event. Cindy Zimmerman spoke with them about the direction of the organization and the direction of the industry, especially in light of the recent Trump win.  A new administration is sure to mean a new direction, says Andy Lavigne, ASTA CEO.

“I think as you look at agriculture over all you’re going to see something of a reset with direction for the political appointees in the new administration. Whenever you have eight years of one administration you sort of get a direction with them and I think what people will start to do is fall back to science based policy, a direction that is based on the great work we have in our industry with respect to science- so how to continue that process? And from the seed industry, that’s all we’re asking for policy. Base it on science, base it on the information we know today,” Lavigne told Cindy.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack was open to science-based decision, but Lavigne believes there is possibility for the next Secretary to move further in that direction. We’ll have plenty of chances to see; next year will bring the enforcement of the new labeling law, new policies will be put into place regarding breeding techniques, and decisions regarding the EPA will be coming down.

Listen to the full interview with Lavigne here:
[wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/nafb-16-asta-andy.mp3″ text=”Interview with Andy Lavigne, ASTA”]

First Vice Chair, Tracy Tally is concerned with what the future will bring for plant breeding techniques. It wasn’t that long ago that plant breeding was based on humans who went out to the field and selected plants based on what they could see and understand.

“Now we are having to start to define how much non-human input is allowed to help us select plants, and select for quality, quality of harvest, consistent harvest, weather affects, yields, to perhaps things we as humans can’t measure,” Tally explained. “And we have technology that’s coming on now to help us do that and to help us do it in a very timely fashion.”

Consumer understanding of plant breeding techniques is sure to shape the future of the industry, both abroad and at home. Hear more in the full interview here:
[wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/nafb-16-asta-tracy.mp3″ text=”Interview with Tracy Tally, ASTA”]

View and download photos from the event here: NAFB Convention Photo Album

Coverage of the NAFB convention is sponsored by
NAFB Convention is sponsored by FMC

Reaction to Election and Policy Priorities for NCGA

Lizzy SchultzAg Group, Audio, Corn, EPA, NAFB, NCGA, Policy, trade

NCGA president Wesley Spurlock and CEO Chris Novak at NAFB Trade Talk

NCGA president Wesley Spurlock and CEO Chris Novak at NAFB Trade Talk

Much of the conversation during NAFB’s Trade Talksurrounded the industry’s response to the election of Donald Trump, and the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) President Wesley Spurlock was on hand to discuss what this new administration will means for NCGA and how the organization intends to move forward into the future.

“It is great to have the election behind us, and we really are watching and putting our names out, and working with them in order to get ag knowledge into the different areas of administration,” Spurlock said in an interview with Cindy. “They’ve got a tremendous amount of people to appoint, and the more ag knowledge that we have in there, the better we’ll be as we move forward into the future.”

President Spurlock discussed how he believes the Trump Administration will impact several of the major issues that have been priorities of the NCGA for the past several years, including the strong Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) opposition that was made clear during President-Elect Trump’s campaign.

“I think as we looked at the way he talked about TPP and what was said, he believed it needed to be re-negotiated,” said Spurlock. “When the Trump Administration sits down and reads the entire TPP agreement, they will see that a lot of their concerns have already been addressed, and we’re hoping that they will put their support behind it as they understand it better.”

Hear more about President Spurlock’s thoughts on what a Trump Administration will mean for agriculture in his interview with Cindy here:
[wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/nafb-16-ncga-spurlock.mp3″ text=”Interview with Wesley Spurlock, NCGA”]

NCGA CEO Chris Novak is also optimistic about the future, believing that the new administration offers some major opportunities for American farmers.

“Our farmers have struggled over the past four years with regulatory challenges from the EPA on our ability to utilize atrazine and roundup on the farm, and we’ve been challenged by EPA with respect to renewable fuels use,” he said in an interview with Chuck. “We know from this election season that reforming regulation means giving us access to the tools that allow us to continue to innovate, and that we need to bring science into policy. These are all themes we’ve heard from President-elect Trump, so there is an opportunity for farmers in this next administration.”

Catch his entire conversation with Chuck to learn more about what Novak believes this election also means for trade and the renewable fuels industry:
[wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/nafb-16-ncga-novak.mp3″ text=”Interview with Chris Novak, NCGA”]

View and download photos from the event here: 2016 NAFB Convention

Coverage of the NAFB convention is sponsored by
NAFB Convention is sponsored by FMC

ASA Director Elected Vice Chairman of NBB

Lizzy SchultzAg Group, ASA, Biodiesel, Company Announcement, Soybeans

asa The American Soybean Association (ASA) was present during this week’s National Biodiesel Board (NBB) membership meeting in St. Louis, with ASA Washington staff and numerous state soybean association staff and farmers in attendance. During the meeting, ASA Board member Mike Cunningham was re-elected to the NBB Governing Board, as well as the new vice chairman of the organization.

The agenda included updates on the status of federal and state policy intitiatives, such as the federal biodiesel tax credit and Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), as well as discussion on the impact of the recent elections, outlook for 2017 and more immediately the Lame Duck session of Congress.

The biodiesel tax credit will expire on Dec. 31, 2016 if not extended during the Lame Duck session. As part of this effort, the industry will conduct a fly-in to Washington, D.C. on Nov. 30 to continue to advocate to Members of Congress the value of biodiesel and the importance of the tax credit.

Topcon and SDF Sign Letter of Intent

Kelly MarshallAgribusiness, Company Announcement, IOT

topcon-600x117Topcon Agriculture and SDF have signed a letter of intent to enter into a non-exclusive long-term partnership agreement.  SDF manufactures tractors, diesel engines and harvesting machines under brand names like DEURZ-FAHR, SAME, Lamborghini Trattori, Hürlimann, Grégoire, Lamborghini Green Pro and Shu-He.

“Topcon Agriculture’s products and services are aimed on enhancing efficiency, productivity and workflows to virtually every phase of farming operations, which pairs well with SDF — a respected supplier to customers worldwide with a wide-range of tractors and other agricultural machines,” said Fabio Isaia, CEO of Topcon Agriculture.

“The anticipated agreement will facilitate active and continuous cooperation between our two organizations, and also in the planning and development of IoT (Internet of Things) solutions for the agriculture market. Topcon and SDF have long enjoyed an existing collaborative association, and this agreement extends and solidifies that relationship,” said Isaia.

Interest Growing in 3RIVE 3D™ Application Tech

Cindy ZimmermanAudio, FMC, NAFB

nafb-16-fmc-3thriveThe trends toward bigger planters, using less water, and being more efficient in the field are all contributing to increased grower interest in 3RIVE 3D™ application technology.

FMC Product Development Manager Terry Mize was at NAFB Trade Talk last week talking about this new way to deliver crop protection products for seedling defense and yield enhancement. “3RIVE 3D™ is a unique application system for in-furrow application products,” said Mize, explaining that the system is mounted on the planter that takes a special formulation, such as FMC’s Capture 3RIVE 3D insecticide, and converts it into a “foam rope.”

“That essentially places the product into the furrow as an uninterrupted rope of chemical in a foam form that expands into the furrow after it’s covered in the planting operation,” Mize said.

Mize says interest is growing in 3RIVE 3D because of the efficiency of the unit, to save time and money in the field. Learn more in this interview and listen to what early adopters have to say in the video below: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/nafb-16-fmc-mize-3thrive.mp3″ text=”Interview with Terry Mize, FMC 3RIVE 3D”]

3RIVE 3D is distributed through Micro-Trak® Systems, Inc.


NAFB Convention Photo Album

Coverage of the NAFB convention is sponsored by
NAFB Convention is sponsored by FMC

AgGateway Recognizes Leaders

Kelly MarshallAg Group, AgGateway

AgGateway Last week at the 2016 annual conference, AgGateway recognized the efforts of individuals and companies on behalf of eBusiness in agriculture.

Dennis Daggett, Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at ProAg, received the AgGateway Ron Storms Leadership Award, the organization’s top honor. The award recognizes repeated, outstanding efforts by an AgGateway volunteer member in promoting collaboration among AgGateway teams and advancing initiatives to enable eConnectivity.

AgGateway also presented its annual AgGateway in Action Awards at the conference. Recipients are chosen by the leadership within the various council segments that comprise the organization, recognizing individuals who have moved connectivity efforts forward in the current year. The 2016 winners include Jody Costa, Marketing Director with Barcoding Inc., presented by the Allied Providers Council; Randy Fry, Data Process and Information Systems Manager of Ceres Solutions, presented by the Ag Retailers Council; Christine Dingman, 2016 AgGateway Vice-Chair, presented by the Crop Nutrition Council; Dave Surber, Owner of Headwaters Business Solutions Inc., presented by the Crop Protection Council; Mary Tangen, Product Manager at DTN/The Progressive Farmer, presented by the Grain & Feed Council; Jeremy W. Wilson, Technology Specialist at Crop IMS, presented by the Precision Ag Council; Marcia Rhodus, Retail Business Solutions Specialist at Monsanto, presented by the Seed Council; and Donald Green, Systems Analyst at Crop Production Services, presented by the Specialty Chemical Council.

Key Cooperative and ACS earned the AgGateway in Action Award for contributions toward advancing eBusiness in agriculture. Ben Craker, AGO Product Manager, was honored with the 2016 President’s Award for Data, Standards & Partnerships.