Precision Ag Bytes 2/14

AgWired Precision, Precision Agriculture

  • Vegalab, Inc. has announced the successful trials of its Pollen Boost product and initial first orders of Pollen Boost for delivery in early February from Stanislaus Farm Supply, Buttonwillow Warehouse Company, and Mid Valley Agricultural Services, Inc.
  • Apache Sprayers will launch the Apache AS630 Sprayer at the 2018 National Farm Machinery Show. The Apache AS630 was built to meet the needs of farmers who want to upgrade to a self-propelled and spray on their own or the larger producer that needs an extra sprayer for their operation.
  • The National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) has released the following statement regarding President Donald Trump’s budget for conservation programs in the 2019 fiscal year. “Once again, this administration is calling on American producers to do more with less,” NACD President Brent Van Dyke said. “The President’s budget proposes cuts to almost every area of USDA’s discretionary and mandatory budgets, including nearly $15 billion in cuts to farm bill conservation programs and over a 20 percent reduction to Conservation Operations.”
  • Salford Group is releasing a row crop air boom for the new 8700 Pull-Type Air Boom Applicator. Both the new 6700 and 8700, and the newly released Ferti-GO 4S, will be on display at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville.
  • A cloud-based, micro-irrigation system tested on a farm in India has cut water use by up to 80 percent and doubled the crop yield, and could relieve the environmental stress that agriculture places on India’s natural resources. The system, which was developed by scientists at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, combines a highly localized weather forecast with local know-how on irrigation needs and soil conditions and has been trialled as part of the Innovate UK-funded Smart Control of Rural Renewable Energy and Storage (SCORRES) project.
  • Members of the North American Plant Phenotyping Network (NAPPN), an association representing major plant phenotyping centers across the continent, have elected Iowa Corn Technology Commercialization Manager David Ertl to the Executive Board. The goal of the NAPPN is to increase the visibility and impact of plant phenotyping and facilitate communication and cooperation within the plant phenotyping and related communities.

Data Flow a Priority at Develop with Deere Conference

AgWired Precision, Audio, John Deere, Precision Agriculture

This year’s Develop with Deere conference in Kansas City was the biggest yet, showing growth in the demand for the opportunity to learn more about data flow and the tools available to help farmers make the most of the information they collect on their farms.

“This conference is really valuable for the software companies to learn some of what not only we provide in terms of data and connectivity, but also what John Deere dealers are looking for and how they can help make all that work. So we’re all kind of working together to achieve that goal,” said Randy Kasparbauer, API Product Manager for John Deere.

He said dealers have common problems around collecting precision ag data and making it useful for their customers. Solutions will differ according to geography, crop type, and equipment, but the conference represents an opportunity to get together and work through some of those issues.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Randy here: Interview with Randy Kasparbauer, John Deere

You can find conference photos here: 2018 Develop with Deere Conference Photo Album

ASA Hires Ryan Findlay as CEO

Ag Group, AgWired Precision, ASA, Company Announcement, Soybean

The American Soybean Association have selected Ryan Findlay as its new Chief Executive Officer. Findlay replaces Stephen Censky, who left ASA in October of 2017 after confirmation by the U.S. Senate as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture.

“ASA is extremely pleased to have found someone of Ryan’s caliber and experience to lead us into our next chapter as a first-class U.S. commodity organization,” said ASA President John Heisdorffer, a soybean producer from Keota, Iowa. “Ryan’s background growing up on a farm and working for the Michigan Farm Bureau and for Syngenta give him the right combination of life and work experience that will serve ASA well in the coming years,” Heisdorffer stated.

Findlay is a native of Caro, Mich., where his family still farms row crops. The last four years Ryan worked for the global agricultural company Syngenta, focusing on freedom-to-operate issues impacting farmers. His seven-year tenure with the Michigan Farm Bureau included work on two farm bills, international trade, climate change and regulatory issues. Ryan, his wife Gretchen, and their two children will be relocating to the St. Louis area, where he will work out of ASA’s headquarters office.

“I am honored to be selected to lead a premier policy organization that I have worked with and admired for years,” Findlay said. “I look forward to building on Steve Censky’s strong legacy as ASA and its state affiliates continue to lead the public debate on key policy issues including farm risk management, international trade and rural infrastructure.”

John Deere Collaborates with Dealers and Developers

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Precision agriculture is giving farmers more and more tools to use in their operations, but it continues to be complex. That’s one reason the company has offered the Develop with Deere Conference to allow farmers, dealers and developers an opportunity to collaborate, said Deanna Kovar, director of production and precision ag marketing with John Deere.

“It’s not just about John Deere equipment and technology. It’s about the support our dealers provide to farmers all across the U.S. and Canada to help them select the right tool for their farm,” said Kovar. “We believe that it’s really important for our dealers to understand all of the options that are out there, and really create that solution to make the Gen 4 display that’s in a lot of tractors, combines and sprayers today as well as a universal option, plus the John Deere Operations Center, work for every farm and how they farm.”

She said the conference is a great example of John Deere understanding that farmers don’t farm alone, and that the company cannot provide all the tools they need to make decisions on the farm. More than 240 dealers attended this year’s conference.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Deanna here: Interview with Deanna Kovar

You can find conference photos here: 2018 Develop with Deere Conference Photo Album

Precision Ag Meets Customized Crop Insurance

AgWired Precision, Audio, Crop Insurance, Farmers Edge, Precision Agriculture

PartnerRe Ltd and Farmers Edge™ have joined forces to couple real-time field data with customized insurance products to help farmers around the globe.

This exclusive, four-year agreement between Farmers Edge and PartnerRe brings together precision farming technology and agriculture insurance in a landmark deal that will fundamentally advance the $5 trillion global food and agriculture industry. Under the terms of the agreement, PartnerRe and Farmers Edge will jointly develop new agriculture insurance products in main crop growing areas worldwide, aimed at addressing the specific needs and challenges of farmers.

Farmers Edge president and CEO Wade Barnes says this groundbreaking agreement will help farmers have more insurance options based on more accurate data while simultaneously opening up new financing options. “Through this partnership, Farmers Edge is making digital agronomy a reality and empowering farmers all over the globe with data-driven insights so they can maximize crop yields, make better decisions and secure tailor made insurance solutions that make sense for their market,” said Barnes.

In this interview, Barnes discusses the potential impact of the agreement, and how it could farmers in both developing countries and here at home. Audio Interview with Farmers Edge President and CEO Wade Barnes

Ag Policy Update: Farm Bill, Budget Deals & Trade

AgWired Animal, AgWired Precision, Audio, Farm Bill, Farm Bureau, Government, trade

The Missouri Farm Bureau’s Young Farmers & Ranchers Conference took place over the weekend. I was able to attend with my husband and had great intentions to not ‘work.’ But when I heard topics being discussed that are timely and others might learn from, I couldn’t help but pull out my recorder and gather some content.

Missouri Farm Bureau’s Director of National Legislative Programs, Spencer Tuma, spoke to attendees during breakout sessions providing policy updates on topics like the farm bill, infrastructure, rural broadband and trade.

If you were sleeping last Thursday night, you may not have realized a government shutdown occurred. But Spencer shares how that shutdown impacted two key commodity groups.

“What that budget agreement does is fund our government until March 23rd through a continuing resolution, but it also had some really cool agricultural provisions including fixes to the current cotton and dairy program. Cotton was not eligible for the traditional commodity programs ARC and PLC. It has the STAX Program, which was plagued with low adoption rates. The current farm bill provisions for dairy, the Margin Protection Program, needed some serious work to be more effective for our farmers and ranchers,” said Tuma.

Even though this budget agreement will only last a short time, it did make those changes to the cotton and dairy programs permanent. “By addressing these through the budget process, it actually frees up some funding baseline in the upcoming farm bill to address some of the other commodity issues,” she added.

Listen to our complete conversation to learn more about the President’s incoming budget’s impact on infrastructure and rural broadband and how changes to trade agreement KORUS could impact U.S. agriculture. Interview with Spencer Tuma, Missouri Farm Bureau

Nebraska Congressman Praises Water for Food Forum

AgWired Precision, Audio, Farming, Food, International, water, Water for Food

Congressman Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) is very proud of the work that the Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska has been doing for the future of sustainable agriculture by encouraging the involvement of young people in the industry.

“Agriculture has become cool! I never thought I would see that,” said Fortenberry at the recent Water for Food International Forum at the World Bank. “Agriculture as a leading edge science integrated successfully into a holistic approach to ecology is capturing the imagination of many young people.”

Fortenberry says we are at a tipping point when it comes to natural resources, leading us into what he calls “economic regeneration…a holistic approach to the ecological system is the new thinking and the new dynamic,” he said.

Listen to his remarks at #Water4Food here: Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE)

2018 Water for Food Forum Photos

John Deere Dealers Develop Applications to Help Growers

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Some of the John Deere dealers who attended this year’s Develop with Deere conference are also developers. Ryan Hutchison with South Country Equipment in Regina, Saskatchewan, has been working on the John Deere Field Connect application. The app takes data, applies agronomic knowledge from the grower and the agronomist, and incorporates weather information to develop what he calls “crop intelligence.”

“With our agronomy team and feedback from our growers, we needed to develop a very quick way for growers to get insights that are actionable from Field Connect data that they can make decisions with in season, immediately,” said Hutchison.

South Country Equipment Agronomist Kendall Gee said one example would be calculating water driven yield potential and showing customers where they stand throughout the season so they can make data driven decisions, understanding what is going on below the ground in their fields.

“They’re excited to have an edge over their neighbors, to have some more data to support their decisions,” said Gee. “Many of our customers are very analytical driven. If they have better information to make better decisions, they’re happier campers.”

Gee said even though farmers can’t control the amount of moisture they have in a dryland farming situation, there are many other factors they can control to best manage the crop in any given year.

You can here Chuck’s interview with Ryan here: Interview with Ryan Hutchison, South Country Equipment

You can here Chuck’s interview with Kendall here: Interview with Kendall Gee, South Country Equipment

You can find conference photos here: 2018 Develop with Deere Conference Photo Album

Perdue Discusses State of Rural Economy

AgWired Animal, AgWired Energy, AgWired Precision, Audio, Government, USDA

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue briefed members of the House Agriculture Committee Tuesday on the current state of the rural economy and USDA’s farm bill priorities.

“We’re in a very different situation than when you last contemplated a farm bill,” said Perdue in his opening remarks. “The state of the rural economy is fragile.”

Secretary Perdue was asked about a number of issues impacting different areas of the nation, including sorghum, nutrition programs, dairy, specialty crops, trade, FMD vaccine, getting undersecretaries approved by Congress, labor and immigration, broadband access, precision ag, citrus greening, renewable fuels, cotton, and lots more.

Listen to part of the hearing here: Sec. Perdue State of Rural Economy

Precision Ag Bytes 2/7

AgWired Precision, Precision Ag Bytes

  • The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International has announced the appointment of the newly formed Agricultural Aerial Remote Sensing Council to serve on a steering committee and as brand ambassadors who will help develop the Trusted Operator Program for remote pilots and unmanned aircraft systems training organizations that serve the agriculture community.
  • Billi Hunt has been named the Executive Director of the Cultivation Corridor. Hunt brings 20 years of experience working for one of the leading agriculture companies in the state. Hunt joins the Cultivation Corridor after working as the Government Affairs Manager — U.S. Central Region for DuPont.
  • Case IH and The Climate Corporation, a subsidiary of Monsanto Company, have announced a new partnership that will extend and develop a portfolio of data sharing capabilities to help farmers with real-time agronomic visualization and decision-making solutions. Case IH will provide customers two-way data connectivity between the AFS Connect™ precision farming platform and The Climate Corporation’s industry-leading Climate FieldView™ digital agriculture platform.
  • The National Association of Conservation Districts swore in First Vice President Tim Palmer as the next president-elect at the member organization’s 72nd Annual Meeting Appreciation Banquet in Nashville, Tenn. The NACD Board of Directors elected Palmer to serve as the organization’s next president-elect where he will serve a one-year term alongside President Brent Van Dyke.
  • AgGateway’s ADAPT Framework, which is designed to make it easy for various hardware and software systems that growers use in their businesses to “talk to each other”, now has a new tool to help developers: the ADAPT ISO Plugin. AgGateway has released Version 2 of the ADAPT ISO Plugin, making it easier for Farm Management Information Systems to read and write data to/from displays and terminals that use the ISOXML specification.
  • Vinduino and eVineyard will announce two new products at the World Ag Expo 2018 in Tulare, Calif. The new eOrchard grove management application optimizes the use of scarce resources, saving time and cost. The Vinduino wireless irrigation valve controller is optimized for working with the eVineyard and eOrchard applications, and accurately and securely controls irrigation for optimal water use and achieving the desired crop targets.