Precision Planting Introduces New SpeedTube™

Jamie JohansenAgribusiness, Equipment, Monsanto, Planting

SpeedTube_vSet_vDrive copyA new seed delivery system now in development by Precision Planting promises to allow growers to plant corn and soybeans much faster than is possible with seed tubes.

Jason Stoller, Precision Planting Engineering Product Manager for the new SpeedTube™, says, “Available time for optimum spring planting is both limited and critical, and larger planters are not the answer to growing farm sizes. But planting speed is limited by the constraints of the seed tube, because high speeds lead to poor spacing.”

Stoller explains that SpeedTube solves these problems by controlling the seed all the way from the meter to the furrow. Feeder wheels at the top grab the seed from the disk and pull it into a flighted belt that deposits it in bottom of the trench. The SpeedTube belt spins at a rate that increases and decreases with planter speed and seeding rates, ensuring that the seed placement is optimal.

The SpeedTube concept development continues at a brisk pace, says Stoller, and more details will follow after the spring planting season.

Precision Planting is an industry leader in planter technology solutions. Founded in Central Illinois and now part of Monsanto’s Integrated Farming Systems, Precision Planting focuses on developing innovative products that improve the planting process. The company is also well-known for its unique and innovative approach to addressing the current agronomic issues facing growers and providing practical educational resources for planting improvement.

Kinze Debuts 1st Electric Multi-Hybrid Concept Planter

Jamie JohansenAgribusiness, Equipment, Kinze, Planting, seed

Kinze-ManufacturingKinze Manufacturing, Inc. would like to introduce the world’s first electric multi-hybrid concept planter to help famers optimize their seed hybrids and increase yields. This technology provides farmers with the ability to change the seed hybrid they are planting automatically as the planter moves through the field. Now seeds can be selected to suit the different field management zones.

“The electric multi-hybrid planter will allow farmers to maximize yield in every part of their field, and not have to make compromises,” said Rhett Schildroth, senior product manager at Kinze Manufacturing. “The yield gains in our trials varied from 2 bushels per acre to more than 10 bushels per acre by utilizing multi-hybrid planting. And unlike other crop practices that seem to have good results one year and negative results the next, every trial we’ve conducted with multi-hybrid planting has resulted in a yield increase.”

Kinze’s new electric multi-hybrid planter has new row units that incorporates two meters for every row and feeds a single seed tube. The gauge wheels, openers and closing wheels are identical to a standard Kinze 4000 series row unit.

“This was only possible by using the new electric drive option on the Kinze 4000 series meters. By eliminating the drive chain and clutch, we were able to orient the meters close together so that they feed a single seed tube,” said Schildroth. “It is a very elegant way to add the multi-hybrid planting capability.”

Kinze will be partnering with Midwestern farmers during the spring of 2014 to showcase the new technology in the field on several electric multi-hybrid concept planters. For more information checkout Kinze.com.

Attention Farming Entrepreneurs

Jamie JohansenAFBF, Ag Group, USDA

afbf-14-ladanThe American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and The Georgetown University McDonough School of Business Global Social Enterprise Initiative (GSEI) recently announced a partnership to help strengthen rural America. The multi-year collaboration will address solutions to building greater economic opportunity and security for those who live in rural communities, starting with a program involving the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative to advance rural entrepreneurship.

Chuck spoke with Ladan Manteghi, Executive Director of Global Social Enterprise Initiative at Georgetown University, about the collaboration.

“The purpose of the Rural Entrepreneurship Initiative is really to help provide resources to anyone who has an idea for a new business or who have a entrepreneurial spirit and be able to strengthen the economic security of rural America.”

“Farmers are considered the original entrepreneurs and we believe that is the case. But often times there are two components to this. Farmers have ideas beyond whats in the farm gate. We want to be able to provide the tools and resources necessary to bring those ideas to market. Second, there are a lot of people in rural America who aren’t farmers and want the opportunity to build economic security and financial opportunity and need these resources as well.”

Ladan also shared hopes for a future collaboration with USDA. During the AFBF Convention Sec. of Agriculture Vilsack said, “It creates a sense of entrepreneurship so that you have investors and entrepreneurs looking for opportunities to start businesses in rural areas. The program dovetails with what we are doing at USDA– trying to educate investment banks and investors about the opportunities to invest in rural opportunities.”

AFBF President Bob Stallman said, “Our partnership with Georgetown is dedicated to giving them and other leaders in rural communities nationwide both a forum and the practical means to brainstorm, strategize and bring their inspirations to fruition and, ultimately, strengthen their communities.”

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Ladan here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/afbf/afbf-14-ladan.mp3″ text=”Interview with Ladan Manteghi”]

2014 AFBF Convention Photos

Vilsack Addresses AFBF Convention

Jamie JohansenAFBF, Ag Group, Government

Secretary of Agriculture Tom VilsackThis morning’s general session at the American Farm Bureau Federation Convention featured a speech by our U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

Yes, he spoke about the farm bill and the need for Congress to pass a new one. Interestingly, he also told us a personal story about being an orphan. Through his adopted father’s side of the family he’s three generations removed from the farm. It was an inspiring story which started with him trying to come up with a one word description of agriculture. He says that it was that great grandfather farmer who was successful enough to raise a family that included children who either farmed or became successful in other businesses. In his grandfather’s case it was the brewing business, then in his father’s case it was real estate and then he became an attorney and ultimately U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. The word he came up with is Freedom. He drew applause during the telling of the story which obviously means a lot to him on a personal level.

You can listen to Secretary Vilsack’s speech here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/afbf/afbf-14-vilsack-speech.mp3″ text=”Sec. Vilsack Speech”]

Immediately after his speech Sec. Vilsack spoke with the media and you can listen to it here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/afbf/afbf-14-vilsack-presser.mp3″ text=”Sec. Vilsack Press Conference”] 2014 AFBF Convention Photos

2014 MapShots Customer Conference

Jamie JohansenAgribusiness, computers, Events, MapShots, technology

AGStudioThe MapShots 2014 Customer Conference is on the calendar for February 6-8 and will feature presentations from many industry partners. The MapShots staff will also provide attendees with information and hands-on experience with AgStudio for precision crop management and record keeping. In addition to presentations from seven industry leaders on how their products integrate with MapShots AgStudio. These partners include: Agri ImaGIS/Satshot, AgIntegrated, AgSense, GeoVantage, John Deere, Raven and Veris Technologies.

Ted Macy, Vice President of Operations at MapShots says, “This is the first MapShots customer conference where we have had the opportunity to have our industry partners present to our customers. We are looking forward to our attendees learning about the breadth of our product offerings.”

Content will be featured for both farm users and service provider users of AgStudio. Farm users will be particularly interested in how AgStudio can record multiple boundary sets, using the Lease Manager module, and track grain inventory after harvest using the Commodity Inventory functionality.

Service provider users of AgStudio will learn about the power and flexibility of AgStudio Select, MapShots new web-based offering designed for use by sales agronomists and their farmer customers.

MapShots also plans a session for those interested in learning how to take advantage of MapShots- patented AgDirector Services platform. Designed as a turnkey solution for reading GPS logs generated by precision ag field devices, AgDirector Services is being implemented by firms who need an easy way to process logged data into their own data stores.

The event will be held at the Georgia Tech Learning Center in Atlanta, GA. For registration and other info visit MapShots.com or call 678-513-6093.

AFBF Adopts Drone Use and More

Jamie JohansenAFBF, Ag Group, Audio, technology, UAV

AFBF DelegatesVoting delegates to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 95th annual meeting concluded this week by approving resolutions that will provide the organization with its marching orders in 2014 on unfinished business like the farm bill and immigration, as well as setting policy on new issues such as drones and agricultural data.

“Congress is still haggling over dairy policy, but for the most part, they are very close to completing a five-year farm bill,” said AFBF president Bob Stallman. The Farm Bureau delegates reaffirmed policy supporting changes to the dairy safety net, including margin insurance programs.

When it comes to drones, delegates adopted new policy that supports the use of unmanned aircraft systems for commercial agricultural, forestry and other natural resource purposes. They also supported the requirement for drone users to gain the consent of the landowners, if operating below navigable airspace However, delegates opposed federal agencies’ use of drones for regulatory enforcement, litigation or natural resource inventory surveys.

Delegates approved new policy supporting the protection of proprietary data collected from farmers and maintaining that such data should remain their property. Delegates also voted to support efforts to educate farmers regarding the benefits and risks of collaborative data collection systems. They also approved policy stating that farmers should be compensated if companies market their propriety information, and that farmers should have the right to sell their proprietary data to another producer, such as in the case of a land sale. Delegates voted to oppose farmers’ data being held in a clearinghouse or database by any entity subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

[wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/afbf/afbf14-stallman-close.mp3″ text=”Stallman closing Press Conference”]

Unmanned Systems in Precision Ag Conference

Jamie JohansenAg Group, Events, UAV

Mark your calendars for the 3rd Annual Unmanned Systems in Precision Agriculture Conference. The event is scheduled for February 11-13, 2014 at the UGA Tifton campus Conference Center.

Developers will be showing, discussing and demonstrating their UAV (drone) technologies for the agricultural industry. If you are a grower, farmer, producer, politician, consultant, engineer, scientist or student then be sure and attend.

The University of Georgia, Guided Systems Technologies and the Georgia Centers of Innovation for Aerospace and Agribusiness will publicly debut new UAV technology being adopted by farmers at the 2014 Unmanned Systems in Agriculture conference.

If you are a tech savvy farmer you can produce your products more efficiently, reduce wasted resources, save time and money and even save crops in need through immediate transmitted information from your UAV. Designed with sensing and imaging technology, these aircraft can inspect an entire farm in less than a day.

You can register here.

FarmLogs Announces $4 Million Series A

Jamie JohansenAgribusiness, Farmers, Financing

farmlogs_white_on_greenFarmLogs is a leading farm management software company that helps farmers digitally manage their farm. Today, they have announced a $4 million Series A round of financing led by Drive Capital.

The funding comes on the back of massive growth for the company and will be used to expand the FarmLogs team as they execute on an aggressive product roadmap for 2014. Open positions are available on the FarmLogs jobs page.

“We are very excited about the trajectory we are on, and having additional support and resources will continue to accelerate our growth,” said Jesse Vollmar, CEO and co-founder of FarmLogs. “We’ve helped thousands of farmers around the world take advantage of technology, and with their feedback and suggestions they’ve helped us create a smarter future for farming.”

More than 5% of row-crop farmers in the United States are using their product. Farmers in all 50 states and 130 countries are using the product to manage and analyze the large amounts of underutilized data collected from their fields in order to make smarter, more efficient and more profitable farming decisions. FarmLogs’ intuitive web and mobile apps provide meaningful insights and help break down the barriers that the farming industry and big hardware manufacturers have put in place.

Drive Capital co-founder and partner Mark Kvamme will be joining the company’s board of directors. Prior to founding Drive Capital, Kvamme was a partner at Sequoia Capital for 12 years where he led investments in Linkedin, MarkLogic, Cast Iron and more.

“FarmLogs is giving farmers the technology to optimize their business that was only available to Fortune 500 businesses just a couple of years ago,” said Mark Kvamme. “We’re honored to be partnering with the exceptional entrepreneurs at FarmLogs solving such important problems for the world’s farmers.”

How did the ‘Polar Vortex’ Affect You?

Jamie JohansenZimmPoll

New Holland ZimmPollOur latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “Would you wear Google Glass?”

Some are still unsure what Google Glass is and even more have no desire to wear them at all. But those techies out there look willing to jump on the bandwagon with Chuck and see how these computers you wear on your face could make work easier or simply life more entertaining. Chuck brought his ZimmGlass with him to AFBF earlier this week and captured a few photos and video interviews. But admits there is a learning curve to master them.

Our poll results:

  • Yes – Depending on price – 38%
  • Yes – No matter what – 8%
  • No – 42%
  • What are they? – 12%

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “How did the ‘Polar Vortex’ affect you??”

Last week the country faced record lows. Some trudged through heavy snow and blizzard like conditions and others battled ice and freezing rain. Chuck and Cindy even suffered in Florida with temps in the teens. Windchill conditions closed schools and cancelled events. But farmers and ranchers nationwide still had work to do. Even more of a reason to thank a farmer! How did last week’s extreme cold affect you?

Use Cover Crops? Yes or No?

Jamie JohansenAg Group, agronomy, Cover Crops, CTIC

Screen Shot 2014-01-14 at 4.26.32 PMConservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) wants to know if you are using cover crops on your farm. They are wanting input from farmers on cover crops as a conservation option on farms across the county. The survey just takes 10 minutes or less and is for those using cover crops and those who haven’t tried them yet.

Your input will help improve cover crop programs and efforts to increase access to information and assistance. Report what works and doesn’t work on your farm. If you don’t use cover crops, share why and help CTIC understand where more scientific evidence is needed to encourage your adoption.

Cover crops are any crop intentionally planted between traditional spring/summer cash crop production periods.

To access the survey click here.

After completing the survey, you will have the opportunity to register for two $100 gift card drawings. Gift card registration takes place at a separate website to ensure that your responses to this survey remain completely anonymous. To be eligible for the drawing respond by Jan. 31, 2014.

This survey is sponsored by the USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program and carried out by the CTIC.