Cellulosic Ethanol – Innovation at it’s Finest

Jamie JohansenZimmPoll

New Holland ZimmPollOur latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “What are your thoughts on cellulosic ethanol?”

As the possibility of cellulosic ethanol grows it looks like popularity will as well. We may be far from buying it at the pump, but people still seem to be excited about the technological innovation.

Here are the poll results:

  • Innovation making it happen – 43.2%
  • Very important renewable fuel – 21.6%
  • Still years away from commercial market – 27%
  • Will never work – 2.7%
  • What the heck is it? – 5.4%

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, How can technology make farming even better?

We’ve been covering lots of precision farming conferences this summer, from the recent Precision Aerial Ag Show in Illinois, to this week’s International Conference on Precision Ag in California, to next week’s InfoAg Expo in St. Louis. Sometimes it seems like farming can’t get any more technological – but can it? What would you like to see on the farm that has yet to become commercially available?

A Word From ISPA President at ICPA

Jamie JohansenAgribusiness, ICPA, technology

stafford-podiumPresident of International Society of Precision Agriculture (ISPA), John Stafford, says there were a wide variety of items on the agenda at this year’s International Conference on Precision Agriculture including technology and crop and soil science.

“In many ways precision agriculture has become mainstream. It was something for only early adopters up until recent years, but now as the keynote speakers have said precision agriculture can provide some of the answers to the challenges facing agriculture.”

John adds that ISPA is growing in numbers and is involved in research around the world that helps makes the jobs of farmers and ranchers easier and more efficient. Along with this conference held in Sacramento this year, ISPA also hosts a European conference on precision agriculture every two years.

Listen to an interview with John by AgNet West reporter Sabrina Hill here: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/icpa/john_stafford_interview.mp3″ text=”Interview with ISPA President, John Stafford”]

Coverage of the International Conference on Precision Agriculture is sponsored by
International Conference on Precision Agriculture is sponsored by SST Software

Ag Leader DirectCommand Application Management

Talia GoesAg Leader

1513260_10151782607056377_388398720_nAg Leader Technology has announced additional features to its DirectCommand application managment system. This update is part of a recent firmware upgrade – version 5.4 – to the Ag Leader Integra and Versa displays.

5.4 firmware includes enhanced Smart Report exporting and auto-generation of reports, a feature specific to the Ag Leader Integra display. With the new functionality, a user can define conditions controlling report generation. Smart Reports can be exported to AgFiniti, Ag Leader’s cloud-based platform. This aids in streamlining the process of delivering a Smart Report to a customer.

As soon as the operator ends the event, a report is generated and stored internally,” says Rick DeVore, DirectCommand Product Specialist. “At the end of the day, the operator can export all reports to AgFiniti. Now those reports can be accessed anywhere through AgFiniti and emailed to their customers.”

Smart Report generation has also been customized for the operator. Smart Reports can now be generated upon suspending or permanently closing an event. An operator can also specify to which media device Smart Reports are exported; a USB drive or AgFiniti. “This will eliminate accidental sending of Smart Reports to the wrong media device,” says DeVore.

New to the 5.4 firmware is an enhanced summary screen. Operators can choose one of four viewing modes – Agronomic, Event, Operator and Configuration. Agronomic and Event view modes have been present in previous firmware versions, filtering summary information by Season, Operation, Grower, Farm Field, Product or Event.

“Operator and Configuration view modes are additions,” explains DeVore. “These modes will display summary information that is filtered either by season, operator and operation, or by season, operation and configuration. Each mode breaks down the total acres/hectares that each operator and configuration have logged. This allows a business or operation to quickly see the total acres/hectares an operator or machine has logged.”

A date range filter has also been added to the Operator and Configuration view modes, allowing the user to view summary information within a certain date range. The user can also create any Smart Report that is present within that date and batch create Smart Reports for the day, week, month or an entire season.

Precision Laboratories Welcomes New Marketing Coordinator

Jamie JohansenAgribusiness, Company Announcement, Precision Labs

Okray, Jennifer-HeadshotPrecision Laboratories, LLC is pleased to welcome Jennifer Okray as its new marketing coordinator. Okray brings years of experience in the marketing and communications field, specializing in digital web content, social media campaigns and market analysis.

“I am thrilled to be working with Jennifer as our marketing coordinator,” said Rick Wohlner, president, Precision Laboratories. “Along with her education and experience, she brings new perspectives and skills that support our company’s values with results-driven, obsessive customer service.”

A Wisconsin native, Okray will work with agency partners to disseminate clear, concise messaging about Precision Laboratories’ products and company news. She will maintain the company’s social media presence to inform and engage its followers. She will also provide multi-channel support to customers through digital branding, product launch materials and streamlined marketing initiatives.

Previously, Okray was director of sales and marketing for Knowledge House Publishers. She also served as communications associate for Asian American Institute and as communications coordinator for Robbins Futures, LLC. Okray spent a number of years as a freelance photographer, digital content writer and journalist forNational Geographic Online, Chicago Sun Times and numerous companies and nonprofits. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s in arts management from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point.

Okray will be based out of Precision Laboratories, LLC headquarters in Waukegan, Ill.

Kinze & Raven Partner on Next Generation Planter Solutions

Jamie JohansenAgribusiness, Kinze, Planting, Raven

KINZE_blk_R_rgbKinze® Manufacturing, Inc. announces a partnership with Raven Industries to develop a standalone monitor solution for the Kinze 4900 series planter. With this new monitor, Kinze and Raven have partnered to develop the software and its integration with the planter, with the goal of eliminating reliance on ISOBUS and other manufacturers’ software.

“Offering our own monitor will make for a more simplified planter set up and provide increased monitor reliability,” says Susanne Veatch, Kinze vice president and chief marketing officer.

“We’re extremely excited to partner with a company as innovative as Kinze. The two companies share a vision in providing solutions to help growers meet the challenge of feeding a growing global population, all while making them more efficient across their entire operation. For Raven, this also fits our commitment of bringing more innovative solutions to customers in our grower markets,” says Matt Burkhart, vice president and general manager for Raven’s Applied Technology Division.

corporateIn addition to the standalone monitor solution, Kinze’s plan is to have the 4900 planter also support ISOBUS virtual terminals that meet Kinze’s requirements and pass Kinze’s qualification tests.

While features of the monitor are currently in development, the current plan is to include:
– A large, color, touchscreen monitor for all planter functions,
– A customizable screen layout to show only the information the farmer wants to see,
– A “screen within a screen” feature giving the ability to monitor mapping and field coverage area as well as planter functions at the same time,
– and a dedicated CANbus line to eliminate issues from overloading the CANbus with too many components.

Timing for the release of the new monitor is yet to be determined and is always subject to meeting Kinze’s standards and requirements. Kinze expects it could be ready as soon as next spring.

Known for providing a comprehensive suite of precision ag solutions to global markets, Raven Industries is also providing the electronics for Kinze’s new electric multi-hybrid planter that is in limited production for the spring 2015 planting season. This will be the industry’s first commercially available multi-hybrid planter system.

LandViewer Sees Current Crop Conditions

Cindy ZimmermanAerial Imagery, Corn, Markets

genscapeA new web portal offers a “real-time view of current crop conditions” allowing growers, traders, and grain buyers to correlate crop conditions with regional pricing information.

Genscape’s new LandViewer platform offers dual-level, real-time images of critical growing variables allowing growers, traders, and grain buyers to correlate crop conditions with regional pricing information. “While NASA is publishing satellite vegetation vigor every 16 days, Genscape processes NASA vegetation vigor data daily for a strong indicator of crop progress,” said Dr. Steffen Mueller, senior director for Genscape.

In May, Genscape expanded its crop assessment capabilities for the 2014 growing season to offer first-hand accounts of crop progress. Starting last month, they began using LandViewer’s patented modeling process to provide bi-weekly crop yield forecast for over 1,400 counties in the top corn producing states.

“We are reaching a key time during this year’s growing season. Our next national forecast will be released at the end of July, providing critical yield and production information ahead of the USDA report on August 12th,” added Dr. Mueller.

Find out more here from Genscape.

New Holland CR Combines Unveiled

Chuck ZimmermanAgribusiness, Harvesting, New Holland

New Holland CR Series CombineNew Holland held a press conference yesterday in Berlin, Germany via Twitter primarily using the #NHharvest2014 hashtag. It was mostly about the new CR Series combines topped by the CR 10.90. Presenting was Carlo Lambro Brand, President. Here are a few of the tweets as examples:

Award-winning Cursor 16 engine developed by #FPTIndustrial that powers the new CR 10.90 #NHharvest2014

We also extended our offering with the launch of the highest capacity combine in the world #NEWCR #NHharvest2014
#NEWCR range: enter a new harvesting dimension- up to 15% more productivity in small grains #NHharvest2014 http://goo.gl/P7BnJY

We gave the CR combines more horsepower than any other combine available on the market today #NHharvest2014 pic.twitter.com/0Nug5S41VU

Learn more by clicking on the hashtag link above.


Opening Keynote at Intl. Conf. on Precision Agriculture

Chuck ZimmermanAudio, Food, ICPA

Dr. Margaret OliverDr. Margaret Oliver was the opening keynote speaker at this week’s International Conference on Precision Agriculture. She is Deputy Editor of the European Journal of Soil Science (2011–present) and was Co-Editor of Precision Agriculture with John Stafford for six years until the end of 2010, but remains on the Editorial Board. On hand for ZimmComm was Sabrina Hill, AgNet West. Sabrina captured some presentations and interviews we’ll be sharing this week.

Welcoming everyone to the opening plenary session was Dr. John Stafford, President, International Society of Precision Agriculture. You can listen to his welcoming remarks here: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/icpa/icpa-14-stafford-intro.mp3″ text=”Dr. John Stafford Welcome Remarks”]

Dr. Oliver spoke on the topic of “Precision Agriculture, Food Security and Geostatistics.” Her talk had two sections. The first linked precision agriculture to food security. The second got more specific dealing with the relationship of geostatistics to precision agriculture. If you’re a true agnerd using precision agriculture hardware and software you’ll like this topic.

You can listen to Dr. Oliver’s talk here: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/icpa/icpa-14-oliver.mp3″ text=”Dr. Margaret Oliver Keynote”]

We’d like to thank Sabrina for her help this week and the sponsor of our coverage of the ICPA, SST Software!

Coverage of the International Conference on Precision Agriculture is sponsored by
International Conference on Precision Agriculture is sponsored by SST Software

Farmers Reminded of Conservation Compliance Changes

Cindy ZimmermanConservation, Farm Bill, Government, USDA

USDA is reminding farmers of conservation compliance changes included in the 2014 Farm Bill that may impact their operations.

usda-logoAccording to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, producers are now required to have on file a Highly Erodible Land Conservation and Wetland Conservation Certification (AD-1026). The Farm Bill relinked highly erodible land conservation and wetland conservation compliance with eligibility for premium support paid under the federal crop insurance program.

“It’s important that farmers and ranchers taking the right steps to conserve valuable farm and natural resources have completed AD-1026 forms on file at their local Farm Service Agency (FSA) office,” said Vilsack. “This will ensure they remain eligible for crop insurance support.”

For farmers to be eligible for premium support on their federal crop insurance, a completed and signed AD-1026 form must be on file with the FSA. Since many FSA and Natural Resource Conservation (NRCS) programs have this requirement, most producers should already have an AD-1026 on file. If producers have not filed, they must do so by June 1, 2015.

FSA recently released a revised form AD-1026, which is available at USDA Service Centers and online at fsa.usda.gov. USDA will publish a rule later this year that will provide details outlining the connection of conservation compliance with crop insurance premium support. Producers can also contact their local USDA Service Center for information.

Ag Leader Technology for Seed, Water and Nutrient Management

Leah GuffeyAg Leader, Audio, Machinery, Nutrient Management, Planting, seed, technology, Variable rate, Water Management

The first Ag Leader Technology Tech Meets Dirt Road Tour around Illinois is now history now and it seems like it was a big success. I attended the event near Peoria and was able to chat with presenters in each of the main focus areas – seed, water, and nutrient management.

_DSC0034Matt Cannon, a farmer from central Iowa, talked about planter performance and how to get the most out of your planter. “Two of the biggest issues we run into on the farm are seed meter performance, getting seed singulated so each seed has the best opportunity to grow and also placement – what adjustments we can control on the planter to get the best seed depth and even emergence,” he said. [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/agleader/techmeetsdirt-14-agleader-cannon.mp3″ text=”Interview with Iowa farmer Matt Cannon”]

_DSC0024SMS Software Product Manager Aaron Friedlein discussed the benefits of tiling for farmers in the Midwest. Ag Leader water management solutions like Intellislope® Tile Plow Control System makes installing tile easy, eliminating the need for complicated laser surveying equipment. “Tiling gets rid of the excess moisture that’s in a soil profile,” he explains. “That allows the plant to have more oxygen in the soil which helps it better utilize nutrients and get deeper roots.” [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/agleader/techmeetsdirt-14-agleader-friedlien.mp3″ text=”Interview with Aaron Friedlein, Ag Leader”]

_DSC0063Finally, Ag Leader North America Sales Manager Mike Olson talks about the ability to apply nitrogen more efficiently with the latest Ag Leader technology, which allows farmers to really determine where to apply while running throughout the fields for the most accurate rate of application and most cost effective opportunities. “The thing we showcased the most was our Opt-Rx crop sensor technology,” Mike told me. “The sensors will go through and measure the crop health and we will put more nitrogen down where the crop is not as healthy and back down on the areas that are healthy.” [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/agleader/techmeetsdirt-14-agleader-olson.mp3″ text=”Interview with Matt Olson, Ag Leader”]
Ag Leader Technology Meets Dirt photo album