What Precision Ag Customers Want and Need

Chuck ZimmermanAg Leader, Insights Weekly

Insights Weekly

One size doesn’t fit all. At least that’s what Ag Leader dealers believe and that’s why they attend the Ag Leader Academy. And whether a grower has 80 acres or 8,000 acres, Ag Leader has a product offering that can deliver a value to that customer. So, Ag Leader dealers are dedicated to spending enough time with customers to determine what they want and need, and what they see as “valuable” to their operations.

During the most recent session, dealers learned about seeding, clutch control and variable-rate application.

Frank Tipton, Ag Leader dealer with Crop IMS in Thompson, Ill., says, “You may think you have the products down-pat, but there’s always something new to learn in order to help your customers.”

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Frank here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/agleader/ag-leader-7-12-tipton.mp3″ text=”Interview with Frank Tipton”]

Tipton says his goal is to get the products in customer’s hands and make it work; this will prepare them to go out to the field and have a valuable experience.

Since once size doesn’t fit all, visit with your local dealer. They’ll help you determine what will fit best with your needs.

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.

WineHawk Brings UAV Precision to Every Farmer

John DavisAgribusiness, Audio

One of the most popular displays at the recent American Society of Farm Managers & Rural Appraisers annual meeting along with the AgroNomics Conference and Trade Show was a company called WineHawk Labs. So popular, in fact, that Chuck could only catch up with them after he got back home! But he was finally able to talk with Pat Lohman, WineHawk’s VP for Business Development, who explained a little bit about the company’s hawk-looking drone for ag purposes.

“We make a two-pound, autonomous drone that is centered around data collection,” Lohman said. He added that while there is a lot of great technology out there that analyzes and collects data, WineHawk is different in that it is offering a better collection platform. “We can actually pick up imagery down to two millimeters per pixel, so we’re looking at a lot higher resolution shots than you’d find with satellites or manned aviation. Plus we can carry a multi-spectral camera.”

Plus, the system is pretty much autonomous… just launch it, and the WineHawk senses where to go and even comes back to its launch site and lands automatically before the batteries runs out. And if you think it looks like a real hawk, that’s on purpose. It will help scare away any birds that might eat your crop, especially fruit crops.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Pat here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/asfmra/asfmra-12-winehawk.mp3″ text=”Interview with Pat Lohman, WineHawk Labs”]

2012 Agronomics Photo Album

ZimmComm Team on Location

Chuck ZimmermanFMC, NAFB

Here’s the ZimmComm team (Jamie, Cindy and me) collecting all our photos and interviews from the Trade Talk session at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting Convention. We’ve got lots. Photos are being updated in the photo album right now. Interviews will be showing up for days and days!

Precision ag is a subject that’s becoming more and more a part of any company’s discussion and products. So expect some interesting interviews here as we get them edited.

Thank you to Hugh Whaley, Photographer, USFRA, for taking our photo.

2012 NAFB Convention Photo Album

Rabobank’s Gilligan Tapped to Lead Ag Consultants

Melissa SandfortAgribusiness, Company Announcement

Paige Gilligan, CAC, a senior vice president with Rabobank, NA, Fresno, Calif., was elected president of the American Society of Agricultural Consultants at the organization’s recent annual meeting.

Gilligan holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural business management from Purdue University and an MBA from the University of Phoenix. She received her Certified Agricultural Consultant designation in 2007. She is currently the Director of Collateral Valuation & Field Services for Rabobank, N.A. and is responsible for all of the bank’s appraisal functions as well as collateral verification services for both agricultural and commercial clients.

Other newly elected officers for ASAC are: President-Elect Russell Morgan, CAC, Covenant Accounting and Tax Services, PLLC, Paducah, KY; Vice President Norman Brown, FBS Systems, Inc., Aledo, IL; Chief Financial Officer Erin Pirro, Farm Credit East, Enfield, CT, and; Immediate Past Gary Wagner, CAC, Great Earth Agri-Business, Inc., Madison, WI.

Elected to the Board of Directors was Joseph Kluender, CAC, Farm Family Dynamics, LLC, North Mankato, MN; and, Angie Vandergriff, Weaver Boos Consultants, LLC, Ft. Worth, TX. Continuing in terms on the Board are: Robert Mehrle, Ph.D., CAC, Agricultural Information Management, Lambert, MS, and; Robert E. Lee, CAC, Lee Agribusiness Connections, Inc., Harrison, ME.

Farm Broadcasters Meeting in Kansas City

Cindy ZimmermanFMC, General, NAFB

Hundreds of agricultural broadcasters from around the country are gathering in Kansas City this week for the 69th annual meeting of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB).

The premier event of the convention is Trade Talk, coming up on Thursday, when all of those broadcasters will be heading into the exhibit hall with microphones and cameras in hand to interview representatives from over 100 companies, agencies and organizations related to agriculture.

FMC is one of the sponsors of Trade Talk, as well as being the sponsor of our NAFB coverage here on Precision.AgWired.com where we will be bringing you interviews related to precision farming and technology from the show.

We will be continually updating our NAFB convention photo album throughout the week, so stay tuned!

How Does the Re-Election Make You Feel?

Melissa SandfortZimmPoll

Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “Should foods containing GMO crops be labeled?” The Prop 37 ballot initiative in California prompted us to ask the question. Well, the initiative failed while our poll showed that most answered yes to our question by a very narrow margin. Interesting. Your thoughts? Feel free to chime in with a comment.

Our poll results: Just over fifty percent said Yes and just over forty nine percent said No.

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “How do the election results make you feel?” Of course there are still votes being counted but we know most of the results and especially the big one for President. I will say I already logged my vote for this poll and it was “mad”. If I could’ve picked more than one option, I would have. Take our poll and let us know how you feel.

ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

More Cutting-Edge Plant Biology Research

Melissa SandfortAgribusiness, Research

DuPont and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) announced the renewal for another five years of a research collaboration that began in 2007. This multi-million dollar collaboration supports cutting-edge plant biology research focused on meeting growing food demands worldwide.

With the world’s population expected to grow by more than 2 billion by 2050, this collaboration will help make possible crucial improvements in plant breeding that will help increase yields from available acreage.

CSHL and Pioneer are investing in discovery research that tackles some of the most fundamental aspects of plant biology. The renewal of the collaboration agreement will continue the expansion of knowledge about the genetic basis of fundamental plant processes controlling growth, development and yield. This collaboration will help facilitate the development of innovative products to meet future global food needs.

Poll Says Farmers Plan to Vote Romney

Cindy ZimmermanFarm Bill, Farmers, General, Government

According to the Agri-Pulse Farm and Rural Poll released today, 78 percent of farmers polled are voting for Mitt Romney in the presidential election and a majority blame Democrats for failure to pass a new farm bill.

“We wanted to see not only how farmers viewed the presidential election, but how the failure to pass a new farm bill might impact their votes on a wide variety of races,” explained Agri-Pulse Editor Sara Wyant. “We also wanted to see how those men and women view some of the most challenging issues confronting their operations.”

On November 1, 2012, Pulse Opinion Research conducted a telephone survey of 319 farmers and ranchers who are likely voters. Questions covered the presidential election, farm bill priorities, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack’s job performance rating, the Renewable Fuels Standard, and other topics. The telephone survey found that 71 percent of respondents strongly disapprove of President Obama’s job performance while 12 percent strongly approve. Of all farmers polled, 51 percent labeled themselves Republican, 26 percent Democrat.

A majority (58 percent) of respondents believe the next president will cut farm program spending, regardless of who is elected. However, if more money is available to spend on farm programs, the most popular way to spend the money is improving crop insurance, as chosen by 37 percent of farmers polled. Notably, 49 percent of farmers indicated they grow only crops, 48 percent indicated they grow crops as well as raise livestock and 3 percent raise only livestock.

Those polled say they believe that environmental regulations and tax burdens are the biggest threats facing the future of their farming operations, 33 percent and 29 percent, respectively.

See all the questions and poll results here.

Connecting Precision Ag Data with Crop Reporting Requirements

Melissa SandfortAgribusiness, Data Collection, USDA

A new cloud-based online service designed to bridge the gap between popular farm management software and reporting requirements for crop insurance, USDA and other government entities has been introduced by Independent Data Management, LLC. The service, MyAgData, simplifies the time-consuming, labor-intensive process of identifying Common Land Unit (CLU) information – tracts of farmland defined by the government – and matching it to corresponding planting and harvest data collected by precision farming software systems. The service is now available for the 2013 crop season.

Designed for crop insurance agents, crop advisors and agronomists working in conjunction with their grower clients, MyAgData allows users to upload field data from their software – including crops, planting dates, field borders, non-plant areas and more. The system then automatically matches the field data from the grower’s software with MyAgData’s CLU database, layering required information over each field.

Equipment Technologies Sets New Assembly Record

Melissa SandfortAgribusiness, Equipment, Spraying

It was a record-breaking month for the men and women working the assembly line at Equipment Technologies this past October. The team built its 70th Apache sprayer in one month, surpassing the previous record of 69 sprayers.

Equipment Technologies is the largest independently-owned manufacturer of self-propelled sprayers in North America. Operating from its 168,000 square foot headquarters in Mooresville, Ind., the company distributes its sprayers throughout North America, Ukraine and Australia through a network of independent dealers.