Claas’ Lexion 780 Shown at AG CONNECT

John DavisAg Connect Expo, Agribusiness, Audio

agconnect-13-claasFarmers this fall will see a new combine that sets itself apart from the competition in its efficiency. During the recent AG CONNECT, Chuck caught up with Claas product specialist Christopher Girodat, who talked about the improvements they’ve made in the company’s new Lexion 780 over the old 770 model.

“We have a new feeder house drive system, which allows you to have more horsepower going down to the actual feeder house to drive those bigger corn heads. We have a new dynamic cooling for our engine compartment cooling system, and we also have a new rear axle on this unit,” Christopher said.

Fuel efficiency is also a big feature, along with a more efficient Accelerated Pre-Separation (APS) threshing system combined with the ROTO PLUS separation system to increase grain retention.

The build schedule starts in a couple of months, so units will be available for this year’s fall harvest.

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Christopher here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/agconnect/agconnect-13-claas.mp3″ text=”Interview with Christopher Girodat”]

2013 AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album

Winehawk Labs New Video

Talia GoesAgribusiness, Video

In November 2012, Precision.AgWired.com interviewed WineHawk Labs, a precision ag company who works in remote sensing, unmanned aircraft operations, field work, software development, GIS, GPS systems development, and pretty much everything in between. WineHawk Labs has continued to grow within the precision agriculture market all over the world.

Watch and learn more about WineHawk Labs as Ernest Earon (Chief Technology Officer) and Patrick Lohman (VP for Business Development) talk more about the company and the services it provides.

If you missed it before be sure to listen to the interview about the companies hawk-looking drone for ag purposes.

Field Connect Brings High Tech to Moisture Monitoring

John DavisAg Connect Expo, Agribusiness, Audio, John Deere

agconnect-13-jd-shaferWe’ve already heard about a couple of the more leading-edge technologies our friends at John Deere displayed at this year’s AG CONNECT, including their JDLink technology. Another product that caught attendees’ attentions was Field Connect, John Deere’s soil moisture monitoring tool.

“It’s pulling soil moisture information from your field, very specific to that location, and providing that to you to make decisions about how you want to manage that field moisture,” explained Nick Shafer, John Deere’s product manager for the company’s ISG group, focusing on Field Connect. The technology consists of three components with a sensing probe that gathers the information every 30 minutes, a gateway that collects and evaluates the information every two hours and a website where producers can collect the evaluated information. And since it operates on either a cell or satellite modem, there’s no worry about not getting a signal no matter where you are.

Nick said there’s also no worries about the security of the information, a hot topic at AG CONNECT. “We want to be transparent. The control of that data will be with the customer.”

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Nick here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/agconnect/agconnect-13-john-deere-shafer.mp3″ text=”Interview with Nick Shafer”]

2013 AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album

Krone CEO Talks Latest Tech at AG CONNECT

John DavisAg Connect Expo, Agribusiness, Audio

agconnect-13-kroneThe recent AG CONNECT Expo can certainly be considered a success, especially if you talk to some of the exhibitors who attended.

“We have a group of customers coming into this show, who are coming into here for education, taking part in the 50 educational sessions, and almost every one of them have been booked out,” said Rusty Fowler, President/CEO of Krone NA, adding that every customer coming to his booth is a serious buyer looking to see how technology can help the operation. “And that’s what this show is all about, and it’s working.”

And Rusty said they’re making to sure to show these buyers Krone’s latest technology, including their 1100-horsepower BiG X forage harvester with a 12-row corn head. “This is the top of the line technology in forage harvesters, in fact, the largest one in the world. [You can fill] a 40-foot trailer with corn silage in about three and a half minutes.” Plus, it comes with all the newest bells and whistles, including telematics, remote diagnostics and plug-and-play GPS technology compatible with many GPS applications. Throw in some of Krone’s newest top-of-the-line balers, and Rusty said they have a whole showcase that fits perfectly with AG CONNECT.

Rusty said they’re already looking forward to the next AG CONNECT Expo in 2015. “I told the folks who manage this show that we’ll need more space in 2015. It’s the best show experience [our potential customers] have ever had.”

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Rusty here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/agconnect/agconnect-13-krone-fowler.mp3″ text=”Interview with Rusty Fowler”]

2013 AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album

FieldScout GreenIndex+ App Picture Tells a Ton

John DavisAg Connect Expo, Agribusiness, Apps, Audio

agconnect-13-spectrumOne of the highlights of the recent AG CONNECT Expo are the AE50 Outstanding Innovations Gold Awards, honoring the “best of the best” displayed at the show. One of those awards went to Spectrum Technologies, Inc., for the company’s FieldScout GreenIndex+ App. The app looks at a smartphone picture of corn at the knee-high level and can make a recommendation on how much nitrogen should be applied, based on the color of the corn leaf. Mike Thurow, President/CEO of Spectrum, said they’re leveraging their knowledge of agriculture.

“Whether it’s row crop or biotech or in the areas of weather monitoring or nutrient or pest management or even soil moisture irrigation scheduling … we take that knowledge and develop some simple, affordable solutions to help these people do a better job of growing more consistent, quality crops,” he said.

Mike added the information gathered can be integrated into a number of systems and can be emailed back to your account at the office or home. And since there’s no stick or USB to pull and physically transfer… or get lost between the field and office… it takes out steps that the folks at Spectrum see as unnecessary.

“The day is already full of activities for a crop consultant, a farmer, and so if you can just make it simpler and streamline that process, then there’s a higher likelihood of success in adopting the technology, and more importantly, getting value out of it.”

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Mike here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/agconnect/agconnect-13-spectrum-thurow.mp3″ text=”Interview with Mike Thurow”]

2013 AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album

JDLink Brings Telematics Solution to Users

John DavisAg Connect Expo, Agribusiness, Audio, John Deere

agconnect-13-jd-bakreOur friends at John Deere made good use of their time at the premier show for technology, innovation and education, AG CONNECT Expo, showing off some of their latest equipment. Swarupa Bakre, Associate Brand Manager for John Deere’s Intelligent Solutions Group talked to Chuck about their JDLink technology, a telematics solution to communicate important information gathered by the equipment and send it back to the user.

“It captures all your machine health, field data, performance and any number of variables,” and transfers the data by cellular network to a website. Swarupa said that producers can then go to the website and look at what they need to know about their machines to make their operation more efficient. “They have a ton of information at their fingertips.”

Swarupa added the whole system helps to do things like simplifying and scheduling maintenance and even setting up anti-theft tools.

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Swarupa here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/agconnect/agconnect-13-john-deere-swarupa.mp3″ text=”Interview with Swarupa Bakre”]

2013 AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album

New Name Coming for Soybean

John DavisAg Connect Expo, Agribusiness, Audio, Bayer CropScience

agconnect-13-ms-techA new variety of soybeans will soon get a new name after making a debut at the recent AG CONNECT Expo. MS Technologies Brand Manager Lauren August says their FG72 soybeans, a collaboration with Bayer, will have their new name revealed at the upcoming Commodity Classic later this month. In the meantime, she can tell us about how the beans will address a problem that growers, especially in the South, face: herbicide-resistant weeds.

“FG72 is going to be one of the first systems to actually provide a double-stack herbicide tolerance,” allowing growers to use tried-and-true glyphosate and now isoxaflutole, the active ingredient in Balance Bean herbicide previously used on corn. “[Balance Bean offers] a unique reactivation capability. Once growers have sprayed it, they’ll receive coverage in their fields all the way up through canopy closure with a little bit of rain,” without having to worry tank mix issues and about it affecting their neighbors’ fields.

Ten years in the making with Bayer, Lauren said this has been an evaluation of more than 40,000 unique elite trait lines, and they expect to release 56 commercial lines in 2015 and another 200 shortly after. More information is available at the company website, www.mstechseed.com.

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Lauren here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/agconnect/agconnect-13-ms-tech-august.mp3″ text=”Interview with Lauren August”]

2013 AG CONNECT Expo Photo Album

Pre-Planting Precision Ag Expectations

Melissa SandfortAg Leader, Agribusiness, Audio, Insights Weekly

Insights Weekly

Precision agriculture is growing in popularity each year. And for one Ag Leader customer, Don Batie, keeping up with the latest and challenging himself to increase productivity and efficiency by using precision farming tools has been on his “to do” list for the past five years. Don’s farm is located northeast of Lexington, Neb., and consists of irrigated corn, soybean and alfalfa.

Many new technologies can be used that are especially helpful during the planting season. For the 2013 planting season, Don is using Ag Leader’s SeedCommand, GeoSteer and DirectCommand.

In a new series, we are catching up with Don pre- and post-planting, and then again this fall pre- and post-harvest. He is sharing his story of his expectations from his precision ag equipment, as well as the results he sees at the end of the growing season.

The reason for Don’s change to precision farming was for operator comfort, to improve yields and decrease input costs. “Driving a tractor for 10-12 hours a day would leave me exhausted,” Don says. SMS software from Ag Leader is also used to develop seeding and fertilizer rates as well as for data collection. Listen here as Don explains more about why he chose to adopt precision technology on his farm.

[wpaudio url=”http://precision.agwired.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/02/DonBatie1.mp3″ text=”Listen to Batie explain”]

During the off-season, drainage tile is also installed via GPS. Don says that “it is simple to do now with technology. Two people can install 8,000-10,000 feet of tile per day with Intellislope.” Ag Leader systems allow for multitasking while in the field. “It enables us to do more than just concentrate on one thing.”

New technologies are emerging every day. “People are amazed at how farmers have progressed and changed to maximize their return.” And while some folks may believe that farming should go back to what it used to be (meaning horse-drawn plows! can you imagine?) and only organic food should be grown, Don explains his take on “old farming” versus modern farming practices and what that means to you the consumer.

[wpaudio url=”http://precision.agwired.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/02/DonBatie2.mp3″ text=”Listen to Batie explain”]

Every farmer is different and every farm has its priorities. Technology may or may not be one of them but for Don Batie it is. He plans to get out in the field, weather permitting, around mid-April to plant. Check back with our Precision.AgWired.com column in May when we touch base with him to see how things went!

Become a fan of Ag Leader on Facebook today, and get the latest precision ag videos on the YouTube channel. For more information about Ag Leader products and services, or to visit the blog site, go to www.agleader.com.

Ram Trucks 2013 Super Bowl Commercial

Talia GoesGeneral

Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, ”Do you support biofuel production and the use of corn to do this?”

Our poll results: The majority of you at sixty percent say Yes, thirty-three percent said No, four percent were Indifferent and four percent chose Other. Growing crops to use as biomass for producing fuel seems to be the best alternative to depleting our finite stocks of oil and they have the added benefit of being more friendly to our environment.

Untitled

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “What did you think of Dodge Super Bowl commercial?” The late conservative radio broadcaster Paul Harvey’s “So God Made a Farmer” speech was the voice of the Ram Trucks Super Bowl 2013 commercial. Paul Harvey was a large voice for HSUS and an animal rights advocate. This may cause agriculturalists to have mixed feelings about Ram’s commercial. How do you feel about the commercial? Can you look past what he represented and smile about the message that he conveyed? Let us know.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by New Holland Agriculture.

USDA Extends Census Deadline

Talia GoesAgribusiness, USDA

USDA-LogoFarmers and ranchers across the country are heeding the call to have their voices heard and their farms represented in the 2012 Census of Agriculture. With 1.4 million Census forms returned, the USDA is thanking everyone for speaking up for their communities, their industry and their future by sending in their Census form. For those who missed the deadline, USDA reminds producers that their farm is important and needs to be counted. As a result, Census forms are still being accepted.

Conducted every five years by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), the Census provides detailed data covering nearly every facet of U.S. agriculture. It looks at land use and ownership, production practices, expenditures and other factors that affect the way farmers and ranchers do business. The deadline for submitting Census forms was February 4, and many farmers and ranchers have responded. However, those who did not respond by the original due date will receive another copy of the form in the mail to give them another opportunity.

Farmers and ranchers can return their forms by mail or online by visiting a secure website, www.agcensus.usda.gov. Federal law requires all agricultural producers to participate in the Census and requires NASS to keep all individual information confidential