USDA Implements Restoration Strategy for Gulf-area

Kelly MarshallConservation, environment, USDA, Water Quality

gomiRobert Bonnie, Under Secretary for the USDA‘s Natural Resources and Environment, announced a new restoration strategy following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  The program is a three-year, $328 million project that will focus on improving water quality and healing ecosystems in the lands around the Gulf of Mexico.  This strategy will be the guide for the USDA’s efforts on private land.

The USDA serves as the chair for the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council (RESTORE), along with the five Gulf states, other federal agencies and landowners.  That group will seek ways to best use the USDA funding, as well as the Deepwater Horizon settlement.

“We’re working side-by-side with farmers, ranchers and forest landowners to improve their operations while taking care of natural resources in the region,” Bonnie said. “With most of the land in the region privately owned, working lands on the Gulf Coast are pivotal to the region’s recovery.”

As part of NRCS’ Gulf of Mexico Initiative (GoMI), this three-year plan strategically directs existing and anticipated Farm Bill funds for technical and financial assistance through a variety of Farm Bill conservation programs to key coastal counties where they can have the best returns. From now through 2018, NRCS will help agricultural producers plan and implement conservation improvements to 3.2 million acres in priority areas, which ultimately result in cleaner water and healthier ecosystems. Assistance is provided through a number of Farm Bill programs, including the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP).

The program will utilize a variety of voluntary conservation programs to help adopt conservation practices; programs like no-till, planting cover crops, managing nutrients, installing grade stabilization structures and water control structures.  Projections suggest these efforts will reduce 11 tons of sediment runoff and 2.65 million pounds of nutrients.

Agworld Launches CFS Management Platform

Kelly MarshallAgribusiness, Data

agworldAll the precision tech in the world isn’t going to do much good unless a grower can get them to work together.  That’s were Agworld comes in.  The global provider of farm management software and applications has introduced Collaborative Farming Solution (CFS), a cloud-based platform that allows growers and retailers to work together.

Most farm systems were developed for specific function, explains Agworld’s President, Zach Sheely.  They do field mapping or manage logistics, but they don’t necessarily play well with others.

“Agworld’s farm management program is a unique solution that integrates precision ag data, production planning, purchasing, input prescriptions, logistics, projections, budgeting and invoices in a seamless manner that allows growers and their ag retailers to work together,” explained Sheely. “We call this ‘work as one’ concept our Collaborative Farming Solution, or CFS.”

Kody Karloff is a fifth generation corn and soybean farmer from Nebraska.  He’s also a prime example of how CFS can work on an operation.  He uses the tools to connect his farm with his ag retailer and shares important information in real time.

“We needed to get a better understanding of our cost per acre,” said Karloff. “To achieve this goal, it’s easier if my retailer and I are working on the same platform.”

Karloff uses Frontier Coop for most of his inputs and it was the Coop that suggested CFS.  Collaboration is the best way to manage a tight economy, marketing manager for Frontier Coop, Jon Brabec believes.

“Using Agworld’s CFS, we are able to streamline the data input, create a comprehensive farm plan and help Kody make more informed decisions,” said Brabec. “Information takes the emotion out of decision making. Now we can run different scenarios, create a comprehensive plan months in advance and still make changes in real time if we have to,” he added.

Karloff feels he has replaced bargain shopping inputs with better service and better solutions by working with his cooperative.  The coop is better able to make the right recommendation and offer simplicity in reporting.

Right now you’ll find Karloff planning for next year on his iPad, taking into account this year’s inputs, yields and income.  Commodity prices might be out of our control, but Karloff is at least confident he has the information needed to make critical decisions.

“No one knows what tomorrow may bring,” says Karloff. “But it feels better knowing that we are working together with one plan, one system, one goal in mind.”

54 Different Countries Represented at 2016 InterDrone

Jamie JohansenAerial Imagery, Agribusiness, Aviation, drone, technology, UAS, UAV

interdrone16-expohallBZ Media LLC’s InterDrone™ The International Drone Conference & Exposition, held at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas Sept 7-9, drew 3,518 attendees from 54 different countries on 6 continents. The event featured 155 exhibitors and sponsors in more than 230 booths. FAA Administrator Michael P. Huerta gave the Grand Opening Keynote speech to thousands gathered on the first day.

“The second year of InterDrone leapt over every high bar that the first show had set,” said Ted Bahr, Chairman of InterDrone. “Its success reflects the exciting growth in the commercial drone market and the strong desire of businesses to take part in it. Attendance grew 26% and we had 58% more exhibitors and sponsors than last year. More than 260 media and association partners have helped build InterDrone into the largest dedicated commercial UAV event in the world.”

“InterDrone 2016 took Vegas by storm. Enthusiasts from every state and over 50 countries gathered together to geek out over the latest products and services. I found myself mesmerized,” said Nathan Tennant, a Blogger and Instructor with UAV Ground School. Anthony Merlino, CEO, Verge Aero added, “We heard such great feedback on the opening day, we literally bought plane tickets and flew across the country to be here for the final days!”

Exhibitors and sponsors included a cross section of the entire commercial drone industry including AeroVironment, PrecisionHawk, Yuneec, Intel, SenseFly, Insitu, Parrot, NovaTel, 3D Robotics, eHang, Autel, AUVSI, Hubsan, C-Astral, Brother, Airbus, SlantRange, Kodak, Flir, Parrot, AEGis Technologies, Sentera, and pavilions from Iowa, North Dakota and Nevada.

“InterDrone has been a great show for us. Traffic has been really good. The people who were coming by were knowledgeable and asking great questions. We feel like the show definitely paid for itself and we’ll be back in 2017,” said Adam Sloane, Founder, BirdsEyeView Aerobotics. John Ferguson, CEO of Saxon Remote Systems added, “Our staff was absolutely exhausted. There were nine of us working the booth and not one person had five minutes to sit down the entire show. The traffic was overwhelming. We were definitely making sales, getting tremendous contacts and generating a lot of interest.”

Sally French, Columnist, Wall Street Journal and Founder, DroneGirl called it a “great conference!” And Alan Phillips, Publisher, DroneLife said it was “A great show for us. InterDrone has become the CES for the new drone economy.”

“I have never seen an event with more buzz and energy, and I have been to them all,” said Mark Barker, Director of Business Development, NIAS-UAS.

Enrico Schaefer, Managing Partner, Traverse Legal said, “The turnout was insane. The response to our products and services was way beyond what we expected. We go to a lot of shows but this is THE show that people need to come to if you are in the Commercial UAV market. Where do we sign up for 2017?”

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FMC Offers New Episodes of The Minute

Kelly MarshallAgribusiness, FMC, Video, yields

fmc-the-minuteFMC is bringing growers 12 new episodes of The Minute.  The series was created to offer timely information about current agronomic issues to growers and retailers.  This new set of shows will help prepare members of the ag community for the 2017 growing season.

“Our host, Jake Turner, is back traveling the country, talking with industry experts and growers about best practices, new technologies and emerging trends,” said Aaron Locker, FMC marketing director. “Growers have told us how much they enjoy The Minute, and we are pleased to bring it back with new information and ideas to help them prosper.”

Jake is covering a lot of territory and topics on The Minute. Over the past three years, more than 30 episodes have been produced. Upcoming episodes will focus on tough corn diseases, new in-furrow technologies, high-production systems and herbicide stewardship. Current and past episodes of The Minute are available at http://www.fmcminute.com.

The first episode addresses maximizing yields.  Dr. Fred Below, a professor of plant physiology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, offers his advise to viewers. “If you look at the highest corn yield recorded in the U.S., it exceeds 500 bushels,” Below said. “The average yield is 180 bushels and that difference is known as the yield gap. Our research is designed to see how we can close that corn yield gap.”

“High yields are all about making sure the plant is never stressed,” Below added. “You have to start strong, grow strong and finish strong. But if you don’t start strong, you can never make up for lost time.”

FMC Product Development Manager Dr. Lamar Buckelew also makes an appearance in the first episode.  He speaks to how new in-furrow products help growers in this endeavor for greater yields.

Every episode also comes with the promise of a drawing for a $100 Visa gift card.  Five winners will be selected; registration is automatic each time you view an episode.

Proagrica Launches Agility Crops for Analytics

Kelly MarshallAgribusiness, Data, Data Collection

proagricaGrowers know you can collect a lot of data, but the real question is can you do anything with it?  Proagrica, a company dedicated to providing decision support for the ag industry, believes they may have a solution to getting actual answers from all that information.

The company feels food production is a prime beneficiary of their technology and software for connecting and interpreting data, due to the complexity of the production process.

“We have seen the same technology prove itself in other sectors and I’m excited to be able to see how the agricultural sector can benefit”, says David Wilson, CEO of Proagrica. “We are literally just scratching the surface and I see the technology, under our Agility brand, providing huge opportunities for businesses to increase productivity, whilst creating the insight to allow whole supply chains to improve radically.”

Proagrica has currently launched Agility Crops focused on the arable sector. Providing real-time insight into input usage, its timing and resulting impact on productivity, Agility Crops covers over 800,000 Ha of cropping across the UK. For the first time, in-season analytics is available, providing the opportunity for real-time solutions, rather than waiting for full-scale surveys to provide a retrospective view, which can only be used historically.

“The platform has the capability of harnessing information from many different sources”, comments Wilson. “At present, it relies on Farm Management Software but we are working on connecting with many other sources such as weather stations, machinery, disease predictors which in time will combine to create enormously beneficial intelligence systems enabling farmers, their advisors and those across the supply chain to increase productivity and resilience within their businesses”.

“In this new era, that we have termed ‘Evidence-Based Production,’ concludes Wilson, “we feel that we are in a unique position to provide an independent solution, creating opportunity for all farmers, agronomists, suppliers and processors to increase efficiency and productivity to meet the undoubted challenges we face.”

AgNerds Unite on this week’s ZimmCast

Kelly MarshallAgribusiness, Audio, Farm Progress Show, New Holland, Tractor

ZimmCast 524A self driving tractor generated a lot of buzz during the Farm Progress Show. New Holland, a sponsor of our event coverage, had their brand new autonomous concept tractor displayed in the center of their show lot and it was getting a lot of attention.

Dan HallidayIn this week’s program Chuck Zimmerman spoke with New Holland’s Dan Halliday to get a detailed view of what this machine is capable of and how this new technology is fitting into future plans for features on new tractors. You can hear Chuck’s inner AgNerd coming out; many of you can probably relate. In the picture, Dan is providing New Holland North American Vice President, Bret Lieberman, with details just prior to the show start.

Dan says this is no pipe dream but a reality. I hope you’ll enjoying listening to him talk about the systems that make this technology work.

Listen here for more on this self driving machine: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/zimmcast524-9-20-16.mp3″ text=”Dan Halliday, New Holland”]

Subscribe to the ZimmCast podcast here.

NCGA Carbon Research Gets $1.6 Million from Monsanto

Kelly MarshallAg Group, Agribusiness, climate, environment, Monsanto, NCGA

monsantoMonsanto has announced they will be supporting the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) and its Soil Health Partnership (SHP)‘s efforts with a $1.6 million investment.  NCGA was recently awarded $1 million dollars from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS) to help farmers find better solutions for reducing climate change.  Monsanto’s contribution will provide expertise, tools and resources to help verify and qualify greenhouse gas reductions from carbon smart farming practices.

“Climate change is a global challenge facing the entire planet and agriculture has the opportunity to be a huge part of the solution. We’re honored to be partnering with NCGA and the SHP on this grant from USDA-NRCS. Together, we can bring focus and resources to help identify ways that modern agriculture helps drive sustainability,” said Brett Begemann, Monsanto President and Chief Operating Officer. “We look forward to continued collaboration with farmers and forward-thinking industry partners who are leading the way in making greenhouse gas reduction a reality on the farm.”

Monsanto, in conjunction with the CIG project partners (NCGA, AgSolver, Applied GeoSolutions, DNDC-ART, Climate Smart Group and CropGrowers) will develop a framework that draws on existing greenhouse gas modeling science, emerging verification technologies (satellite data), and proven precision business planning methods to drive adoption of conservation practices and validate that farmers are helping achieve greenhouse gas reductions.

“To significantly scale up greenhouse gas mitigation practices, a sustainable agriculture systems approach is needed that is simpler and more cost-effective for the farmer,” said Michael Lohuis, Ph.D., Monsanto’s Director of Ag Environmental Strategy. “The system being developed will help remove barriers to confirming adoption of best practices and to quantify the benefits these innovative farm practices can have to air, soil and water quality.”

Monsanto has committed to making its own operations carbon neutral by 2021 and works with farmers around the world to encourage best farming practices.  You can read more about their efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses in the “Charting a Path to Carbon Neutral Agriculture: Mitigation Potential for Crop Based Strategies” report.

Candidates Offer Views on Ag Issues

Kelly MarshallAFBF, Ag Group, Government

clinton-trumpWhile the candidates may weigh in during tonight’s debate on issues such as immigration and trade, which are important to agriculture, it’s not likely they will address topics such as the farm bill and biotechnology.

So, the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) went to both nominees and asked them the same questions on a number of issues that concern farmers and ranchers and the responses are being posted in the organization’s digital newsletter FBNews. In the first responses posted last week, both candidates explained their positions on regulatory reform; the Clean Water, Clean Air and Endangered Species Acts; and the farm bill, biotechnology, and food safety.

“The fact that the candidates took the time in the middle of this very competitive election season to go into such detail in their responses says a lot about the importance of these issues and the farmers and ranchers who care about them,” said AFBF President Zippy Duvall. While AFBF cannot endorse or support a political candidate, the organization is providing the candidates’ positions to inform Farm Bureau members and others.

The Trump campaign responses to the issues are in first person, while the Clinton camp took a third person approach. For example, in response to the question about the Clean Water Act – What would you do as president to ensure that the EPA acts within the bounds of the Clean Water Act?

Trump Response: “First, I will appoint a pro-farmer Administrator of EPA. Next, I will eliminate the unconstitutional “Waters of the US” rule, and will direct the Army Corps of Engineers and EPA to no longer use this unlawful rule and related guidance documents in making jurisdictional determinations.”

Clinton Response: “The Clean Water Act not only stemmed these environmental disasters but helped to reverse course and restore healthy swimmable and fishable waters for all Americans to enjoy. As president, Hillary will continue this legacy. She will work to ensure waters are safe and protected, will maintain the longstanding exemptions for common farming practices, and will continue pushing for clarity within the law.”

The candidates’ opinions on Immigration, International Trade and TPP, and Energy will be posted this week.

Ag Industry Meets with EPA On Pests and Weeds

Kelly MarshallAg Group, ASA, EPA, Herbicides, Insecticide

Last week the EPA met with members of the agriculture industry to discuss the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and its impact on the environment.

The EPA is responsible for regulating the distribution, sale and use of pesticides under FIFRA. The organization will not allow the distribution or sale of a pesticide until it verifies that its use does not cause “unreasonable adverse effects on the environment.”

asaAmerican Soybean Association (ASA) CEO Steve Censky, who attended the meeting, said the farmer groups emphasized a desire to engage with EPA in a constructive way. He added they also underscored the need for agency decisions to fully reflect FIFRA requirements, that decisions consider both benefits to growers and risks, that farmer groups and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) want to be fully consulted in the decision process and that EPA decisions affect the livelihoods of farmers – their competitiveness, ability to control pests and weeks, and ability to produce food for a growing world.

EPA Administrator, Gina McCarthy, specifically stressed the agency’s wish to maintain a constructive conservations with the agriculture industry and stated her understanding of the farmer’s need for pest and weed control.

Two Tractors In One- New Holland Concept

Kelly MarshallAgribusiness, Audio, Farm Progress Show, New Holland, Tractor

Bret LiebermanDesigned for maximum flexibility, New Holland’s concept tractor is actually two tractors in one.   The NHDrive concept tractor was announced at the Farm Progress Show, where operators could view a machine that has the capability to be driven with the attached cab just like a normal tractor or run driverless and be controlled by a portable device or computer.

Chuck Zimmerman spoke with Bret Lieberman, Vice President, North America, New Holland, to get his thoughts on what this means for customers. It’s all about new technology that will help customers. “How can we make them be more productive and do a better job in the work that they do everyday and are committed to in their lifestyle,” says Lieberman.

The NHDrive concept tractor is equipped with a seeder, and is able to autonomously seed the next crop straight behind the combine. Using an application installed on a portable device, perfect for supervised automation, such as an operator driving a combine, or on a desktop computer, perfect for the farmer working in his farm office, the tractor and implement parameters can be continually monitored and controlled, and changes can be made if necessary.

Able to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the NHDrive tractor helps to reduce the risks associated with human error as it follows predetermined and optimised plans for all activities. It is able to reach higher levels of productivity and efficiency than traditional methods. The NHDrive can make full use of the periods of favourable weather for farming operations by working day and night.

In the future, the NHDrive tractor will be able to completely automate grain handling during the harvest when equipped with a trailer, including unloading, transport and offloading activities.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Bret here: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/fps-16-nh-lieberman.mp3″ text=”Interview with Bret Lieberman, New Holland”]

New Holland at 2016 Farm Progress Show Photos