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Proceedings from 6th World Congress on Conservation Agriculture

Jamie JohansenAugust 5, 2014Ag Group, Conservation

Presentations and abstracts from the 6th World Congress on Conservation Agriculture are now available on the Conservation Technology Information Center’s (CTIC) website.

The over 40 presentations and 140 abstracts include subjects such as:
– European perspectives on conservation agriculture;
– the biological potential of grain-producing soils in Australia;
– using conservation agriculture to alleviate food insecurity in Malawi;
– crop-livestock integration in agricultural conservation systems;
– nitrogen-cycling bacteria under continuous no-till cotton in western Tennessee;
– the use of educational tools such as video to educate farmers about conservation agriculture;
– the dynamics of soil organic matter, organic carbon and organic nitrogen under no-till;
– and many more.

WCCA is a global congress focused on practical conservation applications and techniques that will help conserve soil, water and other natural resources, as well as provide economic returns. The congress takes place every three years and will be held next in Rosario, Argentina, in 2017.

The 6th WCCA was hosted by the Conservation Agriculture Systems Alliance, a network of conservation agriculture organizations across North America, with the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) and Soil Conservation Council of Canada (SCCC) taking the lead for WCCA.

The Freedom of FarmLogs

Cindy ZimmermanAugust 5, 2014Audio, Data, InfoAg

When we first talked with FarmLogs co-founder and CEO Jesse Vollmar at the 2013 Iowa Power Farming Show, they were just kicking off this data information and management product, but they have come a long way.

“We’ve done a number of things,” said Vollmar at the InfoAg Conference last week. “One, we’ve made the product entirely free…we love being able to get the technology into as many farmers’ hands as possible.”

FarmLogs has also done a big mobile push over the past year or so. “We’ve got some really great mobile apps that now have mapping and data right on your phone,” Vollmar said. They have also added a number of new features, such as soil maps and rainfall monitoring.

Find out more at FarmLogs.com and learn more in this interview: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/infoag/infoag-14-farmlogs.mp3″ text=”Interview with Jesse Vollmar, FarmLogs”]

InfoAg 2014 Photo Album

Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by

Crop IMS Talks Value of People and Relationships at InfoAg

Cindy ZimmermanAugust 5, 2014Ag Leader, Audio, InfoAg, technology

There’s probably a lot of money wrapped up in all the high-tech equipment you might have on your farm today: whether it’s GPS systems or large tractors or computer software to help you make the right decisions at the right time. But bigger than the cost of that equipment is the value it brings to your operation. Adding value to products by injecting the value people and relationships bring to any technology anyone in agriculture might decide to use today was the theme of a very interesting session at this year’s InfoAg Conference in St. Louis. Don Bierman, Crop IMS Managing Director, talked about how his ag tech company adds value to their products they provide.

“And [that value is defined] depending on who you talk to. If it’s a farmer, he’ll talk about yield and profitability. If it’s a service provider, you’ll talk about ways to strengthen that relationship with the customer,” he said.

Crop IMS is an Ag Leader dealer, marketing directly to farmers and reselling to service provider partners. “It’s a relationship that works really well.”

Listen to my interview with Don here: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/infoag/infoag-14-cropims.MP3″ text=”Interview with Don Bierman, Crop IMS”]

InfoAg 2014 Photo Album

Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by

GEOSYS Promotes Strategy for Remote Sensing

Cindy ZimmermanAugust 5, 2014Audio, InfoAg, Remote sensing

Whether you’re the captain of the football team or a captain of industry… or just captaining your own ship of a farm… one of the keys to success is to have a strategy for that success. At the recent InfoAg Conference in St. Louis, Senior U.S. Account Manager for GEOSYS David Scott did a presentation called Building Your Remote Sensing Strategy for Precision Agriculture.

“You have to have an overall goal in mind,” he said, “before you engage in remote sensing, whether it be through satellites or airplanes or UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) or any other form of capture. That goal should be supported by some strategies, and the individual tactics you use to get there are the remote sensing. Take some time to think through [that goal] and support it with those elements before you act.”

David says Geosys offers producers the advantage of more than 25 years of experience, serving up and adding value to NDVI… Normalized Difference Vegetative Index… maps to farmers. NDVI maps measure the amount of chlorophyll in plants that you can’t see with the naked eye and is an indicator of crop progress, health and yield potential to help with efficiencies. Geosys’ “virtual constellation” of satellite providers and sources of information also make sure there’s a great depth of knowledge in the information the company provides.

“We served over 619 million acres of in-season, high-resolution imagery to the market for farmers to use in their programs,” he said.

David says the amount of information his company is able to gain from a conference such as InfoAg is tremendous.

“This is the Super Bowl for this industry. You could do all the things outside of this conference, but it would take months, so there’s a lot of efficiencies here.”

Listen to my interview with David here: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/infoag/infoag-14-geosys.MP3″ text=”Interview with David Scott, GEOSYS”]

InfoAg 2014 Photo Album

Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by

Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy

Cindy ZimmermanAugust 4, 2014Audio, Government, Growmark, Nutrient Management

This is the first of a four part series on Nutrient Management sponsored by FS/GROWMARK

In March of 2013, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency hosted a meeting of stakeholders to announce the beginning of a statewide Nutrient Reduction Strategy.

Marcia Willhite, chief of the Illinois EPA Bureau of Water, says the first step in implementing this strategy was to get an assessment from the University of Illinois to determine what amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus are being lost to waters. Then they formed a Nutrient Reduction Strategy Policy Working Group composed of government officials, representatives from agriculture, waste water and environmental groups, academia, and technical providers such as NRCS and university extension. “Together we looked at the information provided by the University of Illinois and started to work on strategic actions to reduce these losses to water,” said Willhite, noting that most of the losses came from agricultural non-point sources and waste water discharges.

On the agricultural side, the approach is to identify voluntary conservation practices for farmers and ranchers to implement. “I think a really unique aspect of how Illinois is approaching reducing our nutrient losses is the real leadership that has been shown by the agricultural groups in devising programs that will reach out to farmers, help them understand what happens with the nutrients on their fields, and then demonstrating what practices will be most helpful in reducing those losses,” Willhite said. Among the initiatives developed by the agricultural community is Keep It for the Crop (KIC) by 2025. “I think KIC and programs like it are going to be extremely important in our success,” she added.

At this point in the process, Willhite says the policy group considered a draft of the strategy document and provided comments earlier and it is now being developed for release to the public by early September. “For a 30 day period, we’ll receive comments from the public,” she said. “Once those comments are provided, Illinois EPA and Illinois Department of Agriculture will work together in revising the document.” The final product will then be submitted to the federal EPA for approval.

Find out more about the Illinois work in this interview: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/growmark/illinois-epa-marcia.mp3″ text=”Interview with Marcia Willhite, Illinois EPA”]

As this series continues, we will hear about the N-Watch Program, the impact of N use beyond farm economics, and developing nutrient management plans.

Nutrient Management Series

sponsored by

Partnership Brings Together Industry Leading Tools

Jamie JohansenAugust 4, 2014Agribusiness, Company Announcement, Data, technology

AgWorks, LLC announces a partnership with Willard Agri-Service through its Ag Venture subsidiary to team up to deliver decision support services to growers. Willard Agri-Service has invested over 18 years developing a decision support system that creates real value for both the grower and retailer through their award winning HighQ® product. This product has been utilized on over 5 million acres and is a key tool in helping retailers realize the value of their data, and assist growers in making more profitable decisions. HighQ® harnesses the power of technology to provide growers with actionable information that enables them to make more profitable, environmentally sound decisions. By maximizing yields and generating the profits growers need to remain successful, HighQ® helps ensure that agricultural land stays agricultural land. The HighQ® DSS (Decision Support System) provides the grower with a tool to analyze numerous decisions they made during the growing season and how these variables affect profit per acre. It also provides a powerful community based benchmarking tool for a grower to anonymously compare their operation to similar operations in their area.

AgWorks, LLC has been building ag retail software tools for over 20 years and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of The McGregor Company. AgWorks currently has retail customers in 27 states and has been focused on building tools that are the “core” of a retailer’s day to day operations.

AgWorks has acquired the HighQ® software and will be incorporating the functionality of HighQ® into AgWorks’ totally redesigned AgOS® software system. This system includes real-time inventory, agronomy operations, integrated precision, crop-season planning, fertilizer blending, logistics management, and now grower decision support tools all in a single software solution. This system also has integration points to most popular ag retail accounting systems. Ag Venture will continue as AgWorks’ exclusive distributer of HighQ® in Maryland and five surrounding states.

Both Willard and McGregor are CropLife Top 100 independent retailers and have combined ag retail service approaching 200 years! They are firmly committed to developing software solutions for retailers and growers. Both businesses are invested in technology and retail for the long haul. They feel it’s important that retailers and growers have a choice with their software tools, have control of their data, and how these tools are used to add value to the unique offering of each retailer.

Alta Seeds to Launch 1st Herbicide Tolerant Sorghum Hybrids

Jamie JohansenAugust 4, 2014Agribusiness, Dupont Crop Protection, GMO, Herbicides, Sorghum

Alta Seeds, the premium brand of Advanta, a leading international supplier of proprietary crop genetics, will demonstrate the first herbicide tolerant sorghum hybrids in their 2014 trials in Hereford, Texas. The first grain sorghum hybrids with this trait will be introduced commercially by Alta Seeds in 2016. Herbicide tolerant grain sorghum will give growers greater ability to control yield-limiting grassy weeds, a key crop for areas with limited rainfall.

This advance in non-genetically modified (non-GMO) sorghum genetics was developed under a joint agreement of Advanta with DuPont Crop Protection to commercialize the DuPont™ Inzen™ Z herbicide-tolerance sorghum trait.

“Commercialization of herbicide tolerant sorghum will provide growers with numerous benefits,” says Steve Ligon, North America business director for Advanta. “Post-emergent grass control will allow for greater yields, profitability and convenience. We’re adding the Inzen™ Z herbicide-tolerance trait to our premium Alta Seeds hybrids to deliver a valuable combination of top-yielding sorghum genetics with the latest breeding advancements.”

“This partnership addresses an urgent market need,” says James Hay, regional director, North America, DuPont Crop Protection. “Today, annual grass weeds reduce U.S. sorghum yields by approximately 20 percent. The Inzen™ Z herbicide-tolerance trait offers the potential to stem those losses by providing more effective control of key grass weeds, including foxtail, barnyardgrass, crabgrass and Texas panicum, with convenient over-the-top Zest™ herbicide application.”

Advanta and DuPont Crop Protection are working closely with regulatory agencies and local seed and crop protection teams to develop a product stewardship plan for the new seed trait.

Ag Leader AgFiniti at InfoAg

Cindy ZimmermanAugust 4, 2014Ag Leader, Audio, Data, InfoAg

Most attendees at the InfoAg 2014 Conference had their heads in the clouds and one of those clouds belongs to Ag Leader Technology.

Ag Leader’s cloud-based platform AgFiniti was introduced at Farm Progress Show last year and Kaleb Lindquist says there was a lot of buzz about it at InfoAg. “It’s wireless data transfer and remote support functionality,” said Lindquist. “A lot of people here are interested in the data transfer, which makes sense being at a big data show like this.”

Lindquist explained some of what makes AgFiniti different from other cloud-based platforms. “AgFiniti uses a bring-your-own-hotspot mentality so whatever cell carrier you use, you can use that as your cell source,” he said. “And the file transfer has a lot of powerful sharing tools with it, so we can share data between advisors, we can share it for an extended period of time or just a day.”

Learn more in this interview: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/infoag/infoag-14-agleader-kaleb.MP3″ text=”Interview with Kaleb Lindquist, Ag Leader”]

InfoAg 2014 Photo Album

Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by

John Deere Intelligent Solutions Include Partners

Cindy ZimmermanAugust 4, 2014AgStudio, Audio, Data, InfoAg, John Deere, MapShots

One of the great aspects of the InfoAg Conference is company-to-company communications and partnerships for the benefit of farmers.

We talked with Kevin Krieg, John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group Product Line Manager, about how important it is to work with other companies. “It’s one of the biggest roadblocks to being able to get more adoption of precision technologies – the challenges of being able to get the data from all the different formats, all the different tools, into the ones that can add value to (the farmer),” said Krieg. “What John Deere is trying to do is focus on the grower and what they need to get their job done and we realize it’s not always going to be the John Deere complete solution that’s going to do that.”

Krieg says if that means they have to share the data with other companies and the customer gives them the rights to get that data, “we’re going to enable that and make that happen for the grower in order for them to make that increased profitability for their farm.”

An example of that is how John Deere is working with MapShots AgStudio.

Learn more in this interview: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/infoag/infoag-14-deere-krieg.mp3″ text=”Interview with Kevin Krieg, John Deere”]

InfoAg 2014 Photo Album

Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by

Details on SatShot Iteris Partnership

Cindy ZimmermanAugust 4, 2014Aerial Imagery, Audio, InfoAg, weather

While we were at the InfoAg Conference last week, Iteris and SatShot announced a new partnership to help farmers manage their crops even better. I got more details on the news from SatShot president Lanny Faleide.

“Iteris has whole suite of weather products, and we are bringing the weather information along with the digital vegetation signature from the [satellite] imagery, that we can look at growth models, we can look at how different maps are dealing with the weather, and bring in a much more intelligent data set from the imagery-based products we offer,” he said.

Iteris’ ClearPath Ag™ weather content system will be incorporated into Satshot’s mapping and remote sensing imagery system. Satshot customers – from individual growers to crop consultants and agribusiness corporations – will have the ability to utilize the high resolution, field level ClearPath Ag platform to identify field areas with persistent crop issues through detailed geo-referenced imagery. Iteris will also integrate Satshot crop imagery into their own ClearPath Ag technology to benefit compliance reporting, irrigation forecasting and crop yield optimization.

“Real-time and future weather modeling is very important. We want to be able to provide the answer to the customer even before they know what to ask, and you have to have that weather modeling, because the weather is a dynamic piece. By bringing weather into our models, we’re able to do a better job of predicting what the plant will do in the future. We can come up with answers to help the farmer grow a better crop.”

Learn more in this interview: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/infoag/infoag-14-satshot.mp3″ text=”Interview with Lanny Faleide, SatShot”]

InfoAg 2014 Photo Album

Coverage of the InfoAg Conference is sponsored by

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