Flagship VentureLabs Starts Microbe Solution Company

John DavisAgribusiness

symbiota1Flagship VentureLabs is introducing a new company that will produce microbial solutions that naturally promote plant health and improve agricultural production by harnessing the beneficial microbes that reside within plants. This company news release from Symbiota says the company built a substantial platform and advanced multiple products into greenhouse and field trials in globally important crops including corn, soy, wheat, cotton and vegetables.

Symbiota is based on the recognition that the plant’s internal microbiome is critical to plant health and yield. The company is developing products that form symbiotic partnerships with plants to support healthier, more stress tolerant crops. This new way of naturally, non-genetically boosting crop performance is beneficial to plants and the environment, cost-effective and compatible with all farming practices.

“In a short period of time, we have made several big discoveries in the plant microbiome that have led to rapid product development opportunities, field results and a powerful intellectual property estate,” said Dr. Geoffrey von Maltzahn, Symbiota Co-Founder and President and Flagship VentureLabs Partner. “Symbiota has attracted an extraordinary team of the world’s experts in agriculture, microbiome science, and plant biology to lead this new field.”

Symbiota also announced industry veteran and Flagship Venture Partner Dr. Robert Berendes, former Global Head of Business Development at Syngenta, will be the new company’s Executive Chairman.

“I am very excited to be joining Symbiota, which is the only company leveraging the plant microbiome in a manner that can produce breakthrough agricultural products,” said Dr. Berendes. “Symbiota’s technology is one-of-a-kind and built upon a strong scientific foundation that allows for the development of products that act in symbiosis with plants to offer a step change in crop performance without genetic manipulations.”

NAFB Legislative Update

Cindy ZimmermanAudio, Government, NAFB

hurstMissouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst and Nebraska Farm Bureau president Steve Nelson provided legislative update at the 71st National Association of Farm Broadcasting’s annual convention. The ag leaders reviewed the current direction of the United States agricultural issues and policy on the local, state and national level.

nelsonThe two first addressed their assessment on the recent midterm elections and how it will impact our ability to take care of some important ag business in the near future. Other questions from the floors included concern about Water of the United States and EPA, farmings ability to continue to feed a growing world and how the Farm Bill programs have been implemented.

Listen to the complete Legislative Roundtable here: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/nafb/nafb-14-leg-roundtable.mp3″ text=”NAFB Legislative Roundtable”]
2014 NAFB Convention Photos

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

Hick Chick Chat: John Deere Green Fever

Leah GuffeyAudio, Hick Chick Chat, John Deere, NAFB

11326519286_c9a07ae0bf_oThis week’s Hick Chick Chat comes from the Trade Talk floor of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting’s 71st Annual Meeting in Kansas City. I caught up with my friends at John Deere.

Beverly Flores, the Integrated Communications Manager with John Deere talks about some of the new data management opportunities coming in 2015 for producers. Beverly says there’s a lot of new and exciting things coming up.

deere-green-feverBarry Nelson, Media Relations Manager for John Deere, tells me about John Deere’s Green Fever sweepstakes. To enter, visit your local John Deere dealer to sign up for a change to win a $25,000 landscaping makeover. While at your local dealer, Barry also reminds you to see John Deere’s latest in technology or machine for your lawn, utility and other big iron needs.

You can listen to my chat here: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/podcast/hickchickchat-14-deere.mp3″ text=”Hick Chick Chat: John Deere Green Fever”]

Join in the conversation on Twitter and on Facebook

FMC Offering Year-Long Management

Chuck ZimmermanAgribusiness, Audio, FMC, Herbicides, NAFB

FMC Gail StratmanThe FMC Agricultural Crop Protection portfolio has grown to now offer farmers a complete year-long management approach. Describing this to me during the National Association of Farm Broadcasting convention this week was Gail Stratman, Regional Technical Sales Lead.

He says, “That has been a focus for us, to offer growers more of a complete solution.” Going in to 2015 he advises growers to develop a plan, especially for pest management. This will allow them to help control their costs since commodity prices have dropped. He offers some other winter preparation ideas in our interview.

In the “what’s new” category for FMC Gail says look to Anthem® Flex herbicide which now provides residual control of grasses and broadleaf weeds in winter and spring wheat and cotton with burndown activity on emerged broadleaf weeds. It also works on weeds with known resistance to glyphosate and ALS herbicides.

Listen to my interview with Gail here: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/nafb/nafb-14-fmc-stratman.mp3″ text=”Interview with Gail Stratman, FMC”]

I’d like to extend a big thank you to FMC for their support in the coverage of this year’s NAFB Convention!

You can find photos from the event here:
2014 NAFB Convention Photos

NAFB Convention is sponsored by
NAFB Convention is sponsored by FMC

Big Data Privacy Agreement

Cindy ZimmermanAFBF, Audio, Data, John Deere, NAFB, Raven

Big-Data-Word-CloudA coalition of major farm organizations and agriculture technology providers today announced an agreement on data privacy and security principles.

The agreement was designed to encourage producers to use the full range of innovative, technology-driven tools and services to boost productivity, efficiency and profitability of agriculture with more assurance that personal data will be protected.

The organizations and companies that make up the coalition include: the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), American Soybean Association, Beck’s Hybrids, Dow AgroSciences LLC, DuPont Pioneer, John Deere, National Association of Wheat Growers, National Corn Growers Association, National Farmers Union, Raven Industries, The Climate Corporation – a division of Monsanto, and USA Rice Federation. Nearly all of these entities were represented at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) Trade Talk on Thursday when the announcement was released.

“We’re very excited and proud to be one of the members bringing this out to help address those concerns,” said Ryan Molitor with Raven, who said there are two key components to the agreement. “Educating growers on what they can do with their data and when they grant access to somebody what that person can do with their data, and that the companies participating in this need to be transparent.” [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/nafb/nafb-14-raven-molitor.mp3″ text=”Interview with Ryan Molitor, Raven Industries”]

American Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman says privacy issues were a major topic at the annual meeting earlier this year and he believes the principals agreed to by the coalition provide a measure of needed certainty to farmers regarding the protection of their data. “What we’re asking now is for any ag technology provider or any other producer groups to come on board,” said Stallman. “There will be a grower education effort with this and we’ll have a transparency tool developed to help them assess and make decisions.” [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/nafb/nafb14-afbf-data.mp3″ text=”Interview with AFBF President Bob Stallman”]

The principles promise to greatly accelerate the move to the next generation of agricultural data technology, which includes in-cab displays, mobile devices and wireless-enabled precision agriculture that has already begun to boost farm productivity across the United States.

Click here to read about all of the principles in the agreement.

2014 NAFB Convention Photos

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

Deere Partners Look to Lower Costs, Raise Integrations

John DavisAgNerd, Agribusiness, Audio, Data, John Deere, technology

jd-develop-14-travis-jProducers are always looking for ways to lower their input costs, and that certainly applies to precision farm equipment. At the recent 2014 Develop with Deere conference in Kansas City, Travis Jones with LHP Telematics, a company partially owned by John Deere, told Chuck that the biggest limitation to telematics is the cost of the hardware.

“The boxes just cost too stinkin’ much money!” he said, adding that while volume has and will continue to drop prices, there’s just no way around it. “That is the biggest issue with telematics.”

Travis said another big issue is knowing how to hook up all the wires and make all the devices work together smoothly.

“There are no OEMs out there that say ‘Here is the specification of where you hook up power-ground-ignition to get some of this data,’ and as soon as you go to an after-market installation, that’s where you get the biggest issues. When you go to an owner of an expensive piece of equipment and say, ‘Hey, I need to cut into this wire here,’ they usually don’t like that,” he said.

Travis said the biggest takeaway from the Develop with Deere conference is all the connections they’re able to make to have better integrations of equipment and knowledge.

You can hear Chuck’s interview with Travis here: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/john-deere/jd-develop-14-jones.mp3″ text=”Travis Jones, LHP Telematics”]

Develop with Deere Photo Album

Develop with Deere Attendees Find Great Networking

John DavisAgribusiness, Audio, Dealers, John Deere, technology

jd-developer-14-btiThe recent 2014 Develop with Deere conference in Kansas City gave the company a great chance to show off some of its newest ag information tools, and attendees got some great opportunities to see new products and meet new people.

“We wanted to look at some of the new stuff coming out and see if we can start working with some of these companies to help our customers,” said Cody Warden with BTI, a John Deere Dealer in Southwest Kansas, during an interview with Chuck. “Everybody I’ve talked to is very nice. They’re willing to give the information we need, so we can look at ’em and work with ’em.”

Cody said he was impressed by the large amount of companies attending and even found a company they are going to work with in the future.

You can hear Chuck’s interview with Cody here: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/john-deere/jd-develop-14-bti.mp3″ text=”Cody Warden, BTI”]

Develop with Deere Photo Album

Relationships Develop at Deere Conference

John DavisAgribusiness, Audio, Data, John Deere, technology

jd-develop-14-dn2kWhile the recent 2014 Develop with Deere conference in Kansas City showed off a lot of John Deere’s new tools, it also gave other companies a chance to see how their products fit with Deere’s. Chuck caught up with a very busy Mike Melonis and Oleg Kotliarsky from DN2K/MyAgCentral, one of the developer companies participating in the meeting.

“We’re learning more about John Deere’s offering,” Mike said. “They have a tremendous amount of information that people need access to, and [Deere] wants that information available to people, and we need understand how to access it and properly present it.”

DN2K currently works with Deere’s telematics data and wants to expand into other agronomic data for DN2K’s ag information aggregator. Right now, DN2K is available just for desktop computers, but Oleg said they want to expand that reach into mobile platforms by 2015. “We don’t have a big need for that right now, because our main consumers sit in offices at desks, but as we cover more and more clients at different levels, we are moving toward mobile platforms.”

Both said they’re walking away from this conference with a better understanding about data protection and what John Deere’s model looked like.

You can hear Chuck’s interview with Mike and Oleg here: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/john-deere/jd-develop-14-dn2k.mp3″ text=”Mike Melonis and Oleg Kotliarsky, DN2K/MyAgCentral”]

Develop with Deere Photo Album

USDA: 55.3 Million Acres Irrigated

John DavisGovernment, Irrigation, USDA

usda-logoThe latest government report shows that 55.3 million acres of U.S. farmland is irrigated. This news release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) found that there were 229,237 farms making up those acres, down from 2008’s 235,715 farms.

“The 2013 irrigation survey expands on the data collected about irrigation during the 2012 Census of Agriculture and provides the most comprehensive source of up-to-date information regarding on-farm irrigation and water use in the United States,” said NASS Administrator Joseph T. Reilly. “The latest report reveals key data on the agriculture industry’s use and stewardship of our nation’s water resources.”

Data highlights from the 2013 Farm and Ranch Irrigation Survey include:

* The largest portion of irrigated farmland acres in the United States were dedicated to harvested cropland – including grain and oilseed crops, vegetables, nursery and greenhouse, and hay crops.
* Farmers irrigated nearly 52 million acres of harvested cropland acres in 2013.
* The irrigation results show more irrigated acres with sprinkler systems than gravity irrigation.
* Equipment, in general, is one of the leading irrigation expenditures with farmers and ranchers spending $2.6 billion on irrigation equipment, facilities, land improvements and computer technology in 2013.
* The total amount of water used in 2013 was 88.5 million acre feet.
* The average acre feet applied was 1.6 which compares with 1.7 in the 2008 irrigation survey. (An acre foot is the volume of a sheet of water one acre in area and one foot in depth).
* Irrigated area of horticulture under protection was 1.40 billion square feet in 2013. This compares with 1.37 billion square feet in 2008.
* Irrigated acres of horticulture grown in the open was 524 thousand acres in 2013. This compares with 580 thousand acres in 2008.

USDA officials say this survey is imprtant for farmers and ranchers “looking for more efficient ways to irrigate their land and ways to reduce their expenses … to help them make informed decisions about the future of their operations.”

Will Big Data Coalition Ease Grower Concerns?

Jamie JohansenZimmPoll

New Holland ZimmPollOur latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “How do you feel about election results?”

It looks like the majority polled are very happy with our recent election results. And many are optimistic. Time will tell.

Here are the poll results:

  • Very happy – 47%
  • Very unhappy – 20%
  • Cautiously optimistic – 22%
  • Don’t care – 11%

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, Do you think the new coalition agreement addresses ag data privacy concerns?

A coalition of major farm organizations and agriculture technology providers have announced an agreement on data privacy and security principles. The agreement was designed to encourage producers to use the full range of innovative, technology-driven tools and services to boost productivity, efficiency and profitability of agriculture with more assurance that personal data will be protected. Do you think this will ease grower concerns?