NRCS Helps Agriculture Mitigate Climate Change

Talia GoesAgribusiness, environment, technology, USDA

usda-logoUSDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has developed the world’s largest soil carbon dataset to help producers and planners estimate the impacts of conservation practices on soil carbon levels. USDA is committed to reducing agriculture’s carbon footprint, as Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack discussed in a June 5 address at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The Secretary outlined USDA’s modern solutions for environmental challenges.

Soil has tremendous potential to store carbon, which reduces the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, one of the leading greenhouse gases contributing to climate change. Storage potential varies among soils, land covers, land uses and management, and NRCS soil scientists took 148,000 individual soil samples and evaluated them for carbon content. This Rapid Carbon Assessment, or RaCA, dataset serves as a baseline or snapshot in time for the amount of carbon each soil type is holding.

Landowners can calculate how much carbon their conservation practices such as cover crops can remove from the atmosphere with the new tools, COMET- Farm and the Agricultural Policy Environmental Extender, or APEX model.

New Technology Featured at Corn Conference

Talia GoesAgribusiness, Corn, Harvesting, Planting, technology

logoThe 2013 Summer Corn Conference will feature full-day sessions at which high-yield growers and agronomists can learn about the latest developments and technologies that lead to the best possible yields. Each day will consist of sessions that focus on field scouting, row cleaners and closing systems, down force and population management, and in-cab technologies.

Dates for the conference – held at the Precision Planting operation in Tremont, Illinois – are August 6-9, 2013. Admission is free but spaces are limited and advance registration is required. Those interested may learn more and register for a specific date at www.precisionplanting.com/conference or by calling 800-660-9573.

As in previous summer conferences, attendees will get hands-on field explanations of planting errors and their impact, see planters in action, and watch demonstrations of cutting-edge planting and monitoring technologies. There will be a special presentation of the improved accuracy of the new YieldSense harvest monitor. All sessions are geared toward giving growers information they can use in their own operations to improve decision-making and boost yields.

Landmark Services Cooperative Scouting Drones

Chuck ZimmermanAgribusiness, Apps, Audio, Gadgets, Scouting

Landmark Services CooperativeTaking your iPad out in the field to fly a drone sounds like a lot of fun. This “fun” activity is becoming a business task more and more. The agronomists at Landmark Services Cooperative are getting in on the fun by using tablet-controlled drones for field scouting. One of the advantages this provides is quicker scouting times (up to 60% time savings) which means detecting problems faster. I talked with Dan Moehn, VP, Landmark Agronomy, about their use of this new technology. He says they just started using the drones at the beginning of this growing season. While controlling the drone from the tablet they fly to a height of about 100 feet depending on wind conditions which have a real impact on the small devices. The drone can be spun 360 degrees and captures photos and/or video of a lot of ground. Once landed he says they take an immediate look at what conditions look like.

“Whenever you see a field from a different perspective, you’re able to pick up new information,” he says. “If you’re standing at the end of a corn field, you have one perspective but, when you get in the air, you can see a much larger view of the field and can quickly spot areas that need attention.”

Agronomists traditionally scout fields by walking the length of the acreage and looking for problems – a process that may allow for areas to be missed or additional time spent.

“We look at that footage and evaluate the field, looking for any problem spots,” Moehn says. “If we see an area of crop that has signs of a disease or nutrient deficiency, we can then walk to that area of the field and take a closer look.

“We’re looking for early symptoms of disease pressure, nutrient deficiency or injury from insects,” he explains. “Typically, dark green plants are the healthiest. If the plant is showing signs of yellowness, it may be suffering from a nutrient or disease issue that needs further investigation.”

“We can get the results back quickly enough to make a change and promote a good yield,” Moehn says. “Now through pollination is the most critical time for plant development; if we find a problem, we can still make an effort to change things. When it gets later in the season, it becomes much less likely that you’ll be able to fix a problem.”

“The more scouting we can do, the more probable it is that we’ll see problems before they become bigger than they need to be,” Moehn says. “Preventing problems in the field is especially beneficial in a market where every bushel counts.”

You can listen to my interview with Dan here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/precision/landmark-drones.mp3″ text=”Interview with Dan Moehn”]

Precision Grain Drying

Cindy ZimmermanAudio, Growmark

Doing more with less is the theme when it comes to agriculture in general and commercial grain drying is no different.

gmk-dryerAlmost a year ago, GROWMARK’s Total Grain Marketing (TGM) location at Neoga, Illinois completed installation of a groundbreaking mixed airflow grain dryer. with the help of Chief Industries, United Kingdom. Now, GROWMARK Commercial Grain Systems Project Manager Paul Brooks says they are working on constructing another one in Kearney, Nebraska where it will be used for drying organic grains such as blue corn tortilla chips for food consumption.

“The mixed airflow dryer has a little bit different design in how the air and heat passes through the grain columns,” Paul explains, noting that food grade quality or specialty grain drying needs to be at a lower temperature and shorter time period to avoid damaging the internal parts of the grain.

“This particular drying was originally designed and manufactured in Europe,” he said. “It was designed to be more energy efficient and take into consideration emissions for sound and dust.” That’s among the reasons why GROWMARK believes there is a big future for these types of dryers. “Commercial grain elevators are going to be more regulated on emissions,” said Paul. Additionally, the cost of fuel is increasing and it will cost more and more money to dry the same amount of corn. “We’re going to have to look at things that are more efficient and cost less.”

Find out more in my interview with Paul: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/growmark/growmark-brooks-dryer.mp3″ text=”GROWMARK’s Paul Brooks”]

iCropTrak Farm Management App

Chuck ZimmermanAgribusiness, Apps, Audio, Mobile

iCropTrakThe new sponsor of the AgWired App is iCropTrak. We really appreciate their support and hope you’ll check out what they’re doing.

To learn all about “Precisely Informed Farm Management” I spoke with Aaron Hutchinson, President and one of the founders of Cogent3D, Inc. The company has also pioneered other services like PrecisionEarth and GISRoam.

Aaron says that iCropTrak is “a mobile app that is teamed with a cloud system and what it allows you to do is to convert all your existing paper processes into digital ones so that you always have all of that relevant at your fingertips out in the field.” It is map centric meaning that when you move around in the system you can pinpoint things like a pivot with just a tap of your finger. He says that there is not a big learning curve to utilize iCropTrak on your iPad but that if needed they can provide training assistance and even help with creating customized templates. Aaron also shares some very interesting reasons for choosing the iOS platform (iPad) for their system.

There’s a lot more to learn about what iCropTrak can do for your operation and you can learn all about it in my weekly ZimmCast podcast.

Listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/zimmcast/zimmcast402-7-2-13.mp3″ text=”iCropTrak, Precisely Informed Farm Management”]

WI Farm Technology Days to Feature Soy Biodiesel

John DavisBiodiesel, Soybeans

WIFarmTechDays1For the first time in the nearly 60-year history of the Wisconsin Farm Technology Days, all the diesel equipment at the three-day event will run on biodiesel made from soybeans. The Wisconsin Soybean Marketing Board (WSMB) will sponsor the soy biodiesel at the event July 9-11, 2013:

“We are thrilled to showcase the benefits of soy biodiesel at the 2013 Wisconsin Farm Technology Days,” says Andy Bensend, a soybean farmer from Dallas, Wis., and a District 1 WSMB director.

All trams, tractors and diesel-powered engines at the show will operate on B20, a fuel consisting of 20% soy biodiesel made from soybeans. This clean burning fuel benefits the environment and consumers, and has a positive impact on Wisconsin soybean farmers. During the show, attendees can test drive a variety of tractors and forage harvesting equipment powered by biodiesel.

“Our show offers a great opportunity to showcase advancements in agriculture,” say Tim Jorgenson, Barron County Agriculture Agent and Wisconsin Farm Technology Days 2013 Executive Secretary.

Local biodiesel brewer Sun Power Biodiesel will supply the green fuel for the event, expected to attract more than 60,000 attendees.

Arvus Crosses Borders to Join InfoAg

Talia GoesAgribusiness, InfoAg

image005Arvus, a Brazilian pioneer company in precision agriculture and forestry focusing on software development innovations, will present its first international exhibition of products during InfoAg, July 16-18.

“Currently we have great customers and partnerships in South America, however, it is important to expand to other countries. We are investing in international business partners to seek and analyze the innovations that are being developed abroad” – believes Bernardo de Castro, CEO of Arvus. According to Castro, the process is also important to compete in markets that have more culture of investment in precision agriculture.

The company has already achieved international prominence during the fourth edition of Infodev Global Forum, an event sponsored by the World Bank in 2011, when Arvus was chosen as one of three companies that represented Brazil. During Infodev, a forum that connected the hole world community of technology parks and incubators, opportunities arose for them in early trading with countries in Europe and Central and South America.

Google Reader Gone – Subscribe to Precision.AgWired.com

Chuck ZimmermanApps, Internet, technology

Google ReaderIf you’re trying to keep up with the latest news today then you really need a way to subscribe to RSS Feeds. Hopefully you already are.

But if you use Google Reader, it goes bye bye today. So what do you do now? I shouldn’t assume you use Google Reader or even know what a news feed reader is I guess so let’s step back a moment.

Services like Google Reader allow you to subscribe to RSS feeds. That would be a distribution mechanism for all kinds of information. It’s used by blogs, podcasts and much more. You can find the Precision.AgWired.com RSS Feed here. That link is to a small text file containing the information your feed reader needs to subscribe to Precision.AgWired.com. That means you can pull Precision.AgWired.com posts into your feed reader which might be on your phone or tablet or computer. You can subscribe to lots of feeds and the reader you use aggregates them into one place for you. And you subscribe anonymously! That’s nice for you. But for me it makes it more difficult to provide our sponsors with demographic data on you. Oh well. I’ll happily live with that. I want you to subscribe and enjoy Precision.AgWired.com without worry. Of course, another alternative is the AgWired App which contains the Precision.AgWired.com feed in it!

So back to the demise of Google Reader. What do you replace it with? My recommendation is NetNewsWire for Macs. I’ve been using it for years. It syncs across all my devices, including iPhone and iPad. I subscribe to about 100 feeds right now and check them almost every day. But if you’re still PC then I would point you to Feed Demon or Feedly.

So if you’ve been using Google Reader then import those feeds into your new feed reader asap. Google Reader is gone end of day.

Farm Foundation to Talk US-EU Trade

John DavisInternational

US-EU Farm Foundation1The U.S. and the European Union has a nearly $4 trillion trade relationship, and food and agriculture make up a good portion of that. That’s why Farm Foundation is sponsoring a forum to discuss the U.S.-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on Wednesday, July 17 at the National Press Club, in Washington, D.C.

In early July, the United States and the European Union will open TTIP negotiations toward the goal of increasing U.S.-EU trade and investments. Negotiators will examine tariffs, tariff-rate quotas and non-tariff barriers across multiple sectors. At present, the United States and the EU have about $2.7 billion of trade daily, and nearly $4 trillion is invested each other’s economies. As negotiations get underway, many of the areas of sharp differences will come into focus. For agriculture, both sides have called for an array of market access barriers to be addressed.

Moderating the Forum discussions will be J.B. Penn of Deere & Company, a Trustee of Farm Foundation, a member of the Board of IPC, and a former USDA Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services. Presenting perspectives on TIPP will be:

· Sue Taylor, Vice President of Dairy Policy and Procurement for Leprino Foods Company will discuss dairy industry priorities.

· Matt O’Mara, Director of International Affairs, Biotechnology Industry Organization, will explain his industry’s vision for the future of trans-Atlantic trade.

· William Kerr of the University of Saskatchewan, will outline the different approaches of the United States and European Union to geographical indications.

· Craig Thorn of DTB Associates, LLP will address U.S. industry views of geographical indications.

· David Biltchik, consultant to the Consorzio del Prosciutto di Parma, will discuss the European objectives for geographical indications.

The forum is free to attend, or you can watch it through a webcast. Register by emailing info@farmfoundation.org or for the webcast, register at: www.visualwebcaster.com/July2013FarmFoundationForum.

Precision.AgWired.com Podcast: What about drones?

Meghan GrebnerAerial Imagery, Gadgets, IDEAg, Precision Pays Podcast, Satellite, technology

pp-podcastThe use of drones in agriculture is still being questioned. 

Dr. Kevin Price with the Kansas State University Department of Agronomy presented at last week’s IDEAg Interconnectivity Conference in Altoona, Iowa.  He says with the new technologies that are available, unmanned aircraft systems are going to be highly beneficial in the agriculture industry.  It will allow those that are using the drones to scout fields, check on livestock, and perform other agricultural applications.

In this Precision.AgWired.com Podcast we sit down with Dr. Kevin Price and learn more about how drones can be used in various ways related to agriculture.

[wpaudio url=http://precision.agwired.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/06/PPP-06131.mp3 text=”Precision.AgWired.com Podcast”]