Precision | Page 381 | News and reviews from the precision agriculture industry

John Deere New Anhydrous Applicator

Leah GuffeyAugust 26, 2014Audio, Equipment, Farm Progress Show, John Deere

The recent increase in continuous corn acres requires rugged nutrient application equipment that keeps pace with today’s intensive crop production. The tough new John Deere 2410C Anhydrous Applicator gives customers in the anhydrous ammonia applicator business exactly what they need.

John Deere engineers designed the 2410C Applicator from a field-proven frame design to meet the specific needs of operators, including 44 inches of underframe clearance. These machines are available in wider 19-, 21-, 23-, 24 and 25-row (47.5 ft. to 62.5 ft.) widths and feature an innovative chisel option that gives applicators the opportunity to increase revenues and reduce costs by completing nutrient application and tillage in one pass. In addition, the deeper frame design with floating hitch improves applicator flexibility over rolling terrain by providing more-uniform depth integrity from front to back, especially in challenging field conditions. The hitch provides consistent knife depth, ensuring thorough anhydrous application through the entire width and length of the applicator.

During the 2014 Farm Progress Show in Boone, I had a chance to catch up with Doug Felter, product marketing manager for sprayers and tillage with John Deere.

You can listen to my interview with Doug here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/farm-progress/fps-14-johndeere-felter.mp3″ text=”Interview with Doug Felter, John Deere”]

2014 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

Coverage of the 2014 Farm Progress Show is sponsored by

Coverage of the 2014 Farm Progress Show is sponsored by Bayer CropScience

Bayer Kicks Off Farm Progress Show

Jamie JohansenAugust 26, 2014Agribusiness, Audio, Bayer CropScience, Farm Progress Show, Tractor

The 2014 Farm Progress Show kicked off this rainy Tuesday morning, but you simply can’t complain because rain is a good thing. After the opening I spoke with President and CEO for Bayer CropScience, Jim Blome. He shared about a special donation made during the event and elaborated on Bayer’s mission to ‘Leave A Better World’ for future generations.

“Bayer as an innovation company is really important for us to be at the Farm Progress Show and introduce our new technologies and the ways to increase yields. It’s just natural that we are here. This year we are lucky enough to be the sponsors and open the gates this morning. We took advantage of that by sharing with everyone what we are doing at Bayer CropScience. We also took that opportunity to bring up Ivan Stoltzfus who has driven a tractor from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific to raise money for the Wounded Warriors Project.”[wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/farm-progress/fps-14-blome.mp3″ text=”Interview with Jim Blome, President/CEO, Bayer CropScience”]

Bayer Crop Science was so impressed with Ivan’s efforts that they gave him a $10,000 check taking him over $100,000 mark. After the grand opening Cindy spoke with Ivan and he shared his passion for the industry and what he is doing for our service men and women. [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/farm-progress/FPS-14-BCS-Ivan.mp3″ text=”Interview with Ivan Stoltzfus”]

2014 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

Coverage of the 2014 Farm Progress Show is sponsored by

Creating A Memorable Customer Experience

Jamie JohansenAugust 26, 2014Agribusiness, AgWorks, Education, Software

The customer’s experience is the focus for AgWorks says Chris Sindt, Director of Client Services, as he spoke with Chuck during their recent 2014 AgWorks User Conference.

“At AgWorks we want to funnel everything through a single point of contact. We don’t want to operate as a routine call center. We are not a triage unit, we are actual analysts that will take an issue and will dig as deep as we can before we pass it along to those that can support it further.”

In the future Chris said his passion is in training and that is where he would like to focus a lot of attention. Voice overs, full-motions video and virtual classrooms are all forms of media Chris also would like to implement.

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Chris’s here: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/agworks/agworks-14-sindt.mp3″ text=”Interview with Chris Sindt, AgWorks”]

Photos from the conference can be found here: 2014 AgWorks User Conference Photo Album

Ready, Set, Farm Progress Show

Cindy ZimmermanAugust 26, 2014BASF, Farm Progress Show, Media Room, Raven

The 2014 Farm Progress Show is underway in Boone, Iowa and the weather has cleared but the grounds are still a little muddy.

The ZimmComm team thankful for the air-conditioned BASF Media Tent which is humming with activity from press conferences, to interviews, to broadcasters doing live reports. Happy to be both cool and dry inside!

If you want to watch the activity at the show from a distance, the FPS this year features live webcams sponsored by Raven. There are five different cameras featuring different views of the show, so tune in and see what you can see.

Stay tuned for our coverage here on site at the 2014 Farm Progress Show, thanks to our wonderful sponsors.

Coverage of the 2014 Farm Progress Show is sponsored by

Software Built for the Future

Jamie JohansenAugust 25, 2014Agribusiness, agronomy, AgWorks, Audio, Software

As the 2014 AgWorks User Conference wrapped up, Chuck spoke once again with Greg Duhachek, President of AgWorks. With only a few hiccups due to internet issues, Greg was pleased to share the success of the event.

“Our purpose was to bring people in and give them an opportunity to see the new software. More then that we want them to leave with that software in hands so they can play with it and get a feel for it themselves.”

AgWorks is looking to officially launch the AgOS software in January 2015. Greg said they have a number of customers currently working in a beta mode. Feedback has been positive and they were excited to see the changes that have been made come to play as customers demoed the product during their recent event.

“Change is a constant. We look forward to that feedback. It’s what our future versions are built from. Opening it up to our users is always welcome and is what makes our product built for the future.”

The theme throughout was to ‘simplify and unify the software’ and Greg said the way software has been built in the past has been in a record keeping fashion and not built to be efficient. When creating this product, keeping it simply was AgWorks number one goal.

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Greg’s here: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/agworks/agworks-14-duhachek-close.mp3″ text=”Interview with Greg Duhachek”]

Photos from the conference can be found here: 2014 AgWorks User Conference Photo Album

Verdesian Gets Agreement for Mycotoxin Technology

Cindy ZimmermanAugust 22, 2014Agribusiness, Crop Protection, wheat

Mitsui Chemicals Agro and Hokusan have signed an exclusive licensing agreement allowing Verdesian Life Sciences global access to its patented technology for suppressing mycotoxin contamination in wheat and barley.

Under the terms of the agreement, MCAG and HOK have granted Verdesian an exclusive license to commercialize this expanded usage for Verdesian’s proprietary Systemic Acquired Resistance (SAR) technologies in all countries except Japan. That means wheat and barley growers will now have access to this technology to help fight mycotoxins through a number of Verdesian products.

The MACG/HOK patent expands the use of Verdesian’s patented SAR products as a valuable method for inhibiting mycotoxin, particularly Deoxynivalenol (DON), one of the most potent mycotoxins for contamination of cereals.

“Even fungicides with good activity against Fusarium head blight may offer poor suppression of mycotoxins,” said Nigel Grech, Verdesian executive vice president, science and technology. “In fact, strobilurin fungicides, while controlling Fusarium head blight, can actually induce increases in the level of DON in grain tissues.”

According to company research, Verdesian’s SAR chemistry significantly reduced DON levels to below acceptable levels in wheat and barley, as well as inhibited the strobilurin-induced increase in DON when tank-mixed with azoxystrobin.

Verdesian products that contain this technology will be available for use in late 2014.

Ag Groups Urge EU to Approve Biotech Events

Cindy ZimmermanAugust 22, 2014AFBF, Ag Group, ASTA, biotechnology, Grain, NCGA, Tractor

Nearly 20 agricultural organizations signed on to letters sent this week to the European Commission and the U.S. Trade Representative urging that the European Union (EU) take action in September on nine biotech events that have received positive safety reviews and are awaiting final import authorization.

There are currently nine products, including four soybean products, which have already received positive European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) opinions and completed the subsequent review process, but are still awaiting final authorization for import for food and feed use from the EU’s College of Commissioners.

In a letter to United States Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman, the groups encouraged the Administration to contact EU Commission President Barroso to ensure action on the pending events in September and to ask the EU to respect its obligations under the World Trade Organization (WTO) to make timely regulatory decisions on new biotechnology applications.

In a letter to the EU Commission, the groups stated that “the time required for EU decisions on new biotech crops has only lengthened in recent years and no authorizations have been issued since November 2013. Some of the products have been before the European Commission since the end of 2013 and were submitted to EFSA more than five years ago.

The letters were signed by groups including the American Soybean Association, American Farm Bureau Federation, American Seed Trade Association, National Corn Growers Association, and the U.S. Grains Council.

Versatility in Tractors at John Deere

Jamie JohansenAugust 21, 2014Agribusiness, Audio, Equipment, John Deere, Machinery, Tractor

John Deere’s 6 family of tractors is their most versatile tractor yet. They say it has ‘everything you need and nothing you don’t.’ Chuck’s at John Deere’s media product launch and spoke with Brad Tolbert, Division Marketing Manager for John Deere, at the event and they talked tractors.

“What we are excited to release here is our large chassis 6R’s. We have three new models there. They are all FT4 compliant, but that’s just the underlying piece. There is a lot of customer value that is built in to add to the top of the tractors we introduced in Indianapolis several years ago.”

After conducting focus groups, Brad said John Deere went in and changed the hydraulic valve stack. This increases the use of the tractor and makes it easier to hook and detach from implements. The focus group also said they wanted more visibility in the cab, so John Deere added wide-angle mirrors.

Brad said the 6R’s are available today. Contact your local dealer and they can hook you up. These tractors also have many add-ons that allow customers to customize them to fit their operations needs.

You can listen to my interview with Brad here: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/john-deere/jd-product-14-brad-tolbert.mp3″ text=”Interview with Brad Tolbert”]

Right to Farm Laws Necessary

Jamie JohansenAugust 21, 2014ZimmPoll

Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “What do you think of Right to Farm laws?”

This ZimmPoll struck very close to home for me. As a Missouri farmer, I did what I could to help educate everyone I knew on the truths about the Right to Farm amendment that took a narrow victory earlier this month. I was excited to see that the majority of pollers thought laws such as these were needed to ensure the right to farm for generations to come. I believe we will see more and more states taking action to protect farmers. In my opinion it is a necessity.

Here are the poll results:

Necessary to save farming – 47%
Not necessary – 16%
Too dangerous – 14%
Maybe some states- 5%
Should be federal law – 8%
no opinion – 10%

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, What’s the most important skill set for ag communications?

College campuses across the country are flooded with students heading to class. With that in mind, we want to know what you feel is the most important skill agriculture communications students need to have mastered when they enter the workforce. Is it still the traditional writing/editing skills or more current social media/blogging skills that employees are seeking?

John Deere Launches 2015 Products

Chuck ZimmermanAugust 21, 2014Agribusiness, Audio, Equipment, John Deere, Video

The new John Deere products are launched. Now it’s on to the field and fall farm shows and time to take orders.

However, you can’t order this machine which someone on Twitter last night dubbed the AgriTerminator. It’s a prototype Model 9RX with four tracks! The machine charged onto the show floor last night and was an example of how John Deere is being transparent with its dealers about the products the company is working on. That’s according to John Lagemann, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, United States/Canada/Australia/New Zealand, Agriculture and Turf Division who was on hand for the product reveal.

I spoke with John who says the theme of the show is “Committed to Lead.” We saw a full range of products from turf and utility to full size combines and new high horsepower 9 series tractors. John says that this is not only a product launch that addresses all types of equipment but also all segments of customers. It is also the biggest launch into the hay and forage business with products like a new large square baler.

[wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/john-deere/jd-product-14-lagemann.mp3″ text=”Interview with John Lagemann”]

Now, if you’d like to see the new equipment in action then check out this video. I’ve compiled all the equipment that came out on the floor along with some entertainment for you to enjoy. I hope you like it and share it.

2014 John Deere Product Launch Photo Album

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