Precision | Page 426 | News and reviews from the precision agriculture industry

A Tradition of Healthy Competition at NFMS

Jamie JohansenFebruary 25, 2014Agribusiness, Audio, National Farm Machinery Show, NFMS, Tractor, Video

During this year’s National Farm Machinery Show crowds gathered from across the country to watch the Championship Tractor Pull. The best tractors from across the United States competed in the coveted 2014 event and Chuck chatted with one of the announcers Butch Krieger.

“This is my 35th year here in Louisville. It just gets better every year. The competition is great and the tractor pull committee does a great job deciding who is going to come here. I don’t think if I had even an opportunity that I could put it together as well as they do.”

Butch is pictured on right with another announcer, Dave Bennett. Butch goes on to explain how this pull is held inside with a huge smoke machine that captures all the exhaust that the tractors produce. Freedom Hall is also equipped with heavy exhaust fans throughout the large arena.

Syngenta has served as a huge sponsor for the event for years and drivers were present during the show to sign autographs at their booth. Butch shared he understands it’s hard to get tickets to the Saturday night pull, but says that throughout the week tickets are available to see some of the best tractors from across the nation compete.

You can listen to the interview with Butch here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/nfms/nfms-14-krieger.mp3″ text=”Interview with Butch Krieger”]

National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

Championship Tractor Pull Brings in Best in Business

Jamie JohansenFebruary 25, 2014Agribusiness, Audio, National Farm Machinery Show, New Holland, NFMS, Tractor, Video

Mike Wilhite was a contestant in the recent Championship Tractor Pull during the 2014 National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, KY. He drives Blue Blazes and visited with Chuck prior to the event.

Mike worked for Ford for 30 years. The the tradition didn’t start with him, his dad also worked for the company along with his two brothers. So, naturally they were drawn to New Holland’s blue. Mike is considered a local, living just 32 miles from Louisville.

“Outdoors we run a 300 foot track. In this indoor track we are confined to 240 feet. It’s an experience. You better have everything right. Your weight and gear selections right. There is a lot to it.”

A blockade of sand sits at the end of the short track incase any tractors have a little too much gas in them. Mike shared that they buried their tractor the first year they competed in the event.

Mike and his pulling team competed in about 18 hooks over the course of the season. They traveled as far as Wisconsin, down into Missouri, Tennessee and Alabama. He also expressed how great the fans were at pulls and how committed they were to the competitions.

“We’ve been messing with tractors all our lives. We always had hot rod cars and stuff like that. When my brother and I first started we bought a tractor out of New York, I guess that would have been about 20 years ago. And it has evolved into this here.”

You could tell that all the pullers were great friends and shared a family type atmosphere. But when they get to the track, it’s all business.

You can listen to the interview with Mike here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/nfms/nfms-14-wilhite.mp3″ text=”Interview with Mike Wilhite”]

National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

Get Maxx Authority from FMC

Jamie JohansenFebruary 25, 2014Agribusiness, Audio, FMC, National Farm Machinery Show, NFMS, Weed control

It’s almost time for some serious planting to get underway across the country. That means it is also time for farmers to start thinking about how they’re going to handle weed control, especially in light of concerns over weed resistance.

FMC has a new option this season to think about. It’s their Authority Maxx product that received EPA registration last fall. At the National Farm Machinery Show to talk about this addition to the Authority line of products was Nick Hustedde, Technical Service Representative. He says the product offers soybean growers a very flexible product with a dual mode of action.

A dual-action herbicide, Authority Maxx is a pre-mix of two herbicides with different modes of action, providing burndown activity and residual control of many glyphosate and ALS-resistant small-seeded broadleaves. As with other Authority products, Authority Maxx can be applied as part of fall burndown, or in the spring to prevent yield-robbing weed competition.

You can listen to my interview with Nick here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/nfms/nfms-14-fmc-hustedde-authority.mp3″ text=”Interview with Nick Hustedde”]

National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

FMC Watch & Win Winner

Jamie JohansenFebruary 25, 2014Agribusiness, Audio, Contest, FMC, National Farm Machinery Show, NFMS

FMC does more at the National Farm Machinery Show than talk products in their booth. They also get together for a little fun and fellowship with their customers at the end of each day. It was in their reception room that I met Dan Bender, Indiana family farmer. FMC made Dan a very happy man when he won their last Watch and Win contest!

You can listen to my interview with Dan here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/nfms/nfms-14-fmc-bender.mp3″ text=”Interview with Dan Bender”]

There is a new Watch and Win contest underway. All growers have to do is watch episodes of the The Minute, brought to you by FMC. Easy, eh? And there are lots of prizes.

National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

New Holland Smart Hay & Forage Tools

Jamie JohansenFebruary 25, 2014Agribusiness, Audio, Hay, National Farm Machinery Show, New Holland, NFMS, Video

Robert Hendrix is the rock star of New Holland hay and forage tools. I had fun letting him show off a couple of new products at the National Farm Machinery Show, the Discbine 313 mower-conditioner and Roll Belt 560 round baler. In the interview below he talks us through all the new features.

Discbine 313:

New Holland has taken the Discbine® mower-conditioner to a new level with two new center-pivot models. Combining both speed and performance, the new Discbine® 313 and Discbine® 316 feature increased durability, more efficient crop flow and smoother, more effective conditioning. The combination of larger cutting discs and a wider conditioning system leads to cleaner cutting, better crop flow and more consistent drying. Co-rotating disc modules have been removed on the Discbine 313 and reduced to one pair on the Discbine 316. This greatly reduces the crop convergence between the cutterbar and the conditioner.

Roll Belt 560:

The New Holland’s Roll-Belt™ 560 5’x 6′ round baler delivers two elements cattle producers ask for the most: higher baling capacity and better feeding ability in a wide range of crops and baling conditions. New Holland’s proven combination of rolls and belts gets hay rolling quickly for fast, reliable core starts and helps pack more hay into every bale for less outside storage losses.

You can listen to the interview with Robert here and learn more: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/nfms/nfms-14-nh-hendrix-baler.mp3″ text=”Interview with Robert Hendrix”]

National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

Climate Corporation Offers Climate Information

Jamie JohansenFebruary 25, 2014Agribusiness, Audio, National Farm Machinery Show, NFMS, Video, weather

Have you ever wanted to be able to see what is happening every day weather-wise on each of your fields? The Climate Corporation was at the National Farm Machinery Show telling farmers about a free tool they have to offer that can do just that. You may recall that Monsanto acquired The Climate Corporation in October and NFMS is one of the first shows since that time where they have been out talking to farmers about their products.

The Climate Corporation monitors 30 million fields in the US Corn Belt. According to Jeff Hamlin growers can sign up for free Climate Basic at www.Climate.com. With this account farmers can locate each of their fields and then will be able to see what growth stage the plants are at, how much rain the field has received, and soil moisture in each of the locations entered. The information can be seen from your computer, phone or tablet.

Farmers can also invest in Climate Pro which is a more advanced system which includes satellite imagery of your crops, nitrogen recommendations, and planting recommendations. These programs can be incorporated with precision planting software or just included in your Climate Basic account.

Listen to my interview with Jeff here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/nfms/nfms14-climate-corp.mp3″ text=”Interview with Jeff Hamlin, The Climate Corporation”]

GSI Highlights Products at NFMS

Jamie JohansenFebruary 25, 2014Agribusiness, Audio, NFMS, Video

GSI was one of the many agricultural equipment companies that took advantage of the National Farm Machinery Show’s trade show to market their products. Chuck met up with GSI’s Gary Woodruff to find out more about what they have to offer.

“GSI has been in the business since about 1971. We started out as a grain bin company and over the years grown acquiring other companies. Adding material handling, adding grain dryers, top drys and other equipment. We grew as a private company. We then since went through another type of ownership and recently in December of 2012 we were purchased by AGCO. We are very happy to be one of the AGCO companies.”

Gary shares with Chuck their not so new product, yet still very popular, the Watchdog. A device that allows you to pull up the exact screen that’s on the dryer as along as it has internet capabilities. GSI customers love this because their is no learning curve. It also allows the operator to make any safe changes remotely. All this is done through an IP address and personal password.

“Two or three years ago the early adopters loved this. The biggest issue we had was a lot farms did not have local area networks. We were using cell phone modems. The thing we have noticed in the last 18 months is a much higher percentage of farms have a local network or have web technology. In the last 18 months the usage of this product has increased dramatically.”

To learn more about this and other GSI products, visit your local GSI dealer. Watchdog can be used on any of their Vision Portable Dryers Systems or our Vision Tower Systems. Gary suggests using the dealer finder on their website to find one in your area.

You can listen to the interview with Gary here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/nfms/nfms-14-gsi-woodruff.mp3″ text=”Interview with Gary Woodruff”]

National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

Coverage of the National Farm Machinery Show is sponsored by FMC and New Holland Agriculture

New Website for FS System

Cindy ZimmermanFebruary 25, 2014agronomy, Audio, Growmark

The FS System of GROWMARK has launched a new website to help better promote the brand that has been in existence for nearly 50 years.

The history of the FS System dates back to the formation of the Illinois Farm Supply Company in the early 1920s and was developed as a consolidated brand for agricultural and energy-related products in 1955.

Krista Wolf, GROWMARK Manager for Brand Strategy & Marketing Communications says the new website – www.FSSystem.com – is part of an overall campaign for the FS Brand. “We’ve used campaigns to promote the FS brand throughout all trade territories of the FS companies,” which includes the Midwest and northeastern United States and in Ontario, Canada.

The new site is easy to navigate and includes links to the various FS companies. “While all of those entities had their own websites, we didn’t have a system presence for the FS brand,” said Krista, who added that it also helps make the FS brand more search engine friendly. There are also links on the site to all of the FS brand segments, including agronomy, seed and energy – and links to all of the FS social media pages.

Find out more in this interview with Krista: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/growmark/growmark-krista.mp3″ text=”Interview with Krista Wolf, GROWMARK”]

Think Ahead to Harvest with Case IH Corn Heads

Cindy ZimmermanFebruary 25, 2014Audio, Case IH, Equipment, Harvesting, National Farm Machinery Show

Even though this year’s crop has yet to be planted, it’s not too early to think about harvest season. That certainly was on the mind of Kelly Kravig, Case IH’s marketing manager for combines and headers, as he showed off the new Case IH 4200 Series and 4400 Series corn heads at the recent National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Ky.

“When we started on this project about five years ago, our goals were to design heads to have more capacity to match the size of our machines, pick cleaner, save more grain and put it in the tank, and to be able to pick up down corn better,” he said. As they were developing this new line, they heard a lot from customers on how as they migrated from smaller heads to bigger heads, they wanted to be able to leave the head on the combine without taking it off between fields. Now with their 12-row folding corn head, producers can fold the head up in less than a minute, move to another field, and unfold quickly on the other end to start harvesting. “They get more work done, get their harvest done sooner, and put more grain in the tank.”

Kelly said farmers have been anxious to see the much-talked-about new 4200 Series and 4400 Series corn heads, and NFMS gave them that opportunity to check out for themselves what they might have only read about and seen in videos.

He concluded that this new line is just part of Case IH’s commitment to providing producers with the best products possible – ones that are efficient, reliable, and give farmers the confidence to know they’ll be able to put more grain in the bin.

Listen to more of my interview with Kelly here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/nfms/nfms14-case-3.MP3″ text=”Interview with Kelly Kravig, Case IH”]

2014 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

Raven’s Precision Tech Awarded

Jamie JohansenFebruary 24, 2014Agribusiness, Audio, NFMS, Raven, Video

Tim Heins heads up the product management team for Raven and Chuck caught up with him at the trade show during the National Farm Machinery Show.

“At the ASABE Award Show, in conjunction with the farm show, we won four AE50 Awards. We won them for SmarTrax™ MD, OmniRow® Multi-Hybrid Planter Control System and our Viper 4 Field Computer.”

As an independent precision ag provider, Raven was the only company that won that many awards. Tim shared how exciting it is to be winning awards along side big names in the farm equipment industry.

Raven’s OmniRow® Multi-Hybrid Planter technology also was awarded the FinOvation Award presented by Farm Industry News for a collaboration with South Dakota State University and Pioneer Seeds.

“We have been doing variable rate technology for years now and when you talk about that it’s hard for producers to really understand variable rate. What do I need to do? How and when do I do it? When you talk about changing hybrids it’s something that is more intuitive and they understand their fields. To growers and producers, multi-hybrid more than variable rate, they get.”

You can listen to the interview with Tim here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/nfms/nfms-14-raven-heins.mp3″ text=”Interview with Tim Heins”]

National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

Page 426 of 675
←
1
...
425
426
427
...
675
→