Man Made Climate Change Opinions Divided

Chuck ZimmermanZimmPoll

Are you surprised by the results of our latest ZimmPoll? I’m not. The question was, “Do you believe in man made climate change?” If this doesn’t show a divided viewpoint then I don’t know what does. We just wanted a simple yes/no without trying to get into arguments over what science is better than another. Fifty two percent said yes and forty eight percent said no. This also attracted one of the highest numbers of responses to a ZimmPoll. So, I just wonder why there seems to be such a big push to create legislation and regulations when there is so much disagreement on the issue. What do you think?

Our next ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “How many apps on your smartphone?” They don’t have to be “ag” apps, just any apps. I can tell you I’ve got more than 90 on my iPhone but I’m doubting I’m normal.

Feel free to post a comment on either the results of our last poll or on the new one. What smartphone apps are your favorites and why. Thank you for participating.

And if you have any questions you want to suggest for future ZimmPolls please let us know.

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

Precision Labs iPod Giveaway Winner Announced

Chuck ZimmermanPrecision Labs

The ZimmComm/Precision Laboratories Mix Tank App iPod Giveaway has ended. The entries were collected and a winner has been drawn.

The winner is . . . . Illinois corn grower, Greg Guenther! Greg served eight years on the Illinois Corn Grower board and three years on the National Corn Growers board. He was honored by the ICGA with their World of Corn Award, which goes to individuals, organizations or businesses for making significant contributions to the corn industry. Greg also received the St. Louis Agribusiness Club, Agribusiness Leader of the Year Award in 2009.

Congratulations to Greg. He will receive an iPod touch that comes pre-loaded with the Precision Labs Mix Tank App and the AgWired App. Just trying to make it easy for you Greg.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter. We had a lot of fun doing the giveaway and I think you’ll see more opportunities in the future.

The Sickle Mower

Melissa SandfortAgricultural Anthropology

Careful where you go burning grass or haphazardly cutting weeds because you never know what might be hiding amongst the rubbish. Along with the spike tooth disk, I found this sickle mower for mowing hay, grass or weeds. (Looks like it needed to be used right where it was sitting!) The operator sat on the seat to drive the horses that pulled the mower.

A short history on this mower:
Sickle mowers have a long bar on which is mounted fingers with stationary guardplates. In a channel on the bar there is a reciprocating sickle with very sharp sickle sections (triangular blades). The sickle bar is driven back and forth along the channel. The grass is cut between the sharp edges of the sickle sections and the finger-plates (this action can be likened to an electric hair clipper).

The bar rides on the ground, supported on a skid at the inner end, and it can be tilted to adjust the height of the cut. A spring-loaded board at the outer end of the bar guides the cut hay away from the uncut hay. The so-formed channel, between cut and uncut material, allows the mower skid to ride in the channel and cut only uncut grass cleanly on the next swath. These were the first successful horse-drawn mowers on farms and the general principles still guide the design of modern mowers.

Source: Wikipedia. (Where else?)

Today, we use large hay and forage disc mowers, built for compact tractors or full-size operations. If you want big, they got big. This modest sickle mower got its start around 1914 and is anything but big, but it got the job done.

Until our next history lesson …

SMS v11 Released From Ag Leader

Melissa SandfortAg Leader, Insights Weekly

Insights WeeklyAg Leader Technology recently released Version 11 of the SMS Desktop Software, which offers many new features and benefits to help improve the operation and interface of the software. Whether it is data from planting, fertilizing, spraying, harvest or guidance, SMS houses and organizes the data for easy access.

Jessica Ahrens, Ag Leader Software Support Specialist, says SMS Version 11 is “colorblind”, meaning it can be utilized with any kind of precision ag displays and equipment.

Some of the new Version 11 features include:
• A new, modern windows docking and hiding functionality
• The ability to dynamically download aerial and road maps as a special background layer
• A new “Quick Statistics” area
• A new selection tool – Select by Legend Range
• Changes to the export process
• Enhanced migration process
• Enhanced legends and additional support of Section and Row level data
• And, SMS Mobile Version 5.0 has been released

Ahrens gives us a look at some of the SMS software’s newest features.
She also notes that the enhancements come from customer requests.
So how do growers go about getting the latest updates? Ahrens explains.

Click here for an instructional video about SMS Version 11.

For more information about products and services, visit the Ag Leader website.

AgSmart™ Rice Introduced By AquaLiv, Inc.

Melissa SandfortGeneral, Industry News, Research

AquaLiv, Inc., has officially released its first commercialized agriculture product, AgSmart™ Rice.

AquaLiv scientists have been performing agriculture enhancement studies in Japan for over ten years. AgSmart™ has proven to vastly increase the yields and quality in several crops without chemicals or genetic manipulation. The company claims AgSmart™ is the only agriculture biotechnology solution that is also natural and organic standards compliant.

“Our rice study demonstrated a 100% yield increase on a scientist managed plot and a 32% yield increase on a working commercial farm who agreed to implement our technology,” stated AquaLiv CEOCraig Hoffman. “These increases indicate significant value to both farms and global food production.”

Based on AquaLiv’s BioT™ Bioinformation Technology, AgSmart™ maximizes crop potential by accelerating plants’ natural adaptivity while exposing them to a frequency-based information composite. The information composite includes local environment data (climate, pests, diseases) and traits of other species generally only available through hybridization. AgSmart™ does not involve the actual hybridization of plants nor does it utilize genetic manipulation.

New Seed Traits Should Focus On Nutrient Utilization

Chuck ZimmermanZimmPoll

Improving nitrogen/nutrient utilization (45%) was the top choice in answer to the ZimmPoll question, “What should the next seed traits focus on?” That was followed by drought tolerance at 23%, improve food/fiber profiles 14%, improve current traits 9% and other 9%. If you selected “other” what would you suggest? So there you go researchers. Let’s get with it and bring on some new traits!

Our next ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “Do you believe in man made climate change?” I was going to use the term global warming but now we have found out that cooling is going on too so the current buzz term on this is climate change. Let us know what you think and thank you for participating.

And if you have any questions you want to suggest for future ZimmPolls please let us know.

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

Where’s the Spin Cycle?

Melissa SandfortAgricultural Anthropology

I love doing laundry. That involves separating whites and darks, walking down the hall, throwing it in the washer and going back to doing something else for 50 minutes while it washes; tossing it in the dryer and folding it. Total time = 1.5 hours.

I have it easy.

This is an old double-faced wash board that belonged to my Grandpa’s mother. Back in the day, these cost anywhere from 16 to 25 cents each, depending on the model. To get a load of laundry “going”, she would have to go outside and pump the water into a pail by hand, carry it in the house, heat up the boiler on the stove, heat the water, and fill another tub for rinsing. Wash the clothes by hand, ring them out, then take them outside to dry on the clothesline. There was no Tide or Downy, only hand-made lye soap. But boy did it get things white.

Total time? I’m guessing at least 3 hours, and they were busy ONLY washing clothes that entire time.

Thank you Maytag.

Until our next history lesson …

Insect Migration Forecast Adds New Features

Cindy ZimmermanEducation, Internet, Monsanto

Knowing where the bugs are going can help farmers beat them.

insect forecastThe Insect Forecast website is ready to start pest tracking in May with new enhancements for the 2011 growing season to increase farmer awareness about above-ground pests that can threaten their fields. The new features include the tracking of western bean cutworm pressure in the Midwest, in addition to the annual migration of corn earworms from the South to Midwestern corn fields.

Also new this year, starting May 6, farmers can sign-up online at www.insectforecast.com to receive e-mail alerts when these insects pose a risk in their areas.

Developed by climatologist and meteorologist Mike Sandstrom, the Insect Migration Risk Forecast (IMRF) monitors the daily migration of damaging pests, such as corn earworm, from May through September. It analyzes moth trapping data and weather patterns to issue one, two and three-to-five day forecasts.

The IMRF is being sponsored again this season by Monsanto Company and offered to farmers as a tool of its Genuity® trait brand.

Ag Leader’s Blue Delta Dealers

Melissa SandfortAg Leader, Insights Weekly

Insights WeeklyBlue Delta, an elite precision farming distribution network from Ag Leader, was created to help precision farming dealers become well-rounded precision farming experts. Blue Delta creates an opportunity for the best of these dealers to separate themselves with in-depth training and increased product and marketing support so they can become an even better resource for their customers.

The end user’s most important resource is their precision farming dealer, and the Blue Delta dealers have been equipped with a number of tools to help them better educate and support their precision farming customers. And, the more educated growers are about precision farming, the more they embrace it.

Mike Houghtaling, sales manager for P&C Ag Solutions, a Blue Delta dealer in Saginaw, Mich., says, “Being a Blue Delta dealer means that we know how to make things work and our customers don’t have to worry when they buy from us. All too often, we meet new customers that have bought products from other dealers or manufacturers and had a bad experience, including anything from not getting the support they expected, to getting a product that doesn’t quite fit the application required, to an experience with a dealer that doesn’t know how to install or support the product.

“Being a Blue Delta dealer gives us a bar to reach for, and we know we are expected to be the best. New customers see our Blue Delta status and immediately know that we will take care of them. I think it gives them peace of mind when dealing with someone new and spending thousands of dollars on a new tool that they don’t have any experience with. Some of the new technology is a bit of a leap of faith for some growers. We hear it a lot with new customers: ‘As long as YOU know what you are doing, I shouldn’t have to’.”

Mike tells us being a Blue Delta dealer enables him to better serve his customers. “It makes us aim a bit higher. Whatever we have to do to keep our customers moving, we do.”

This video can help you learn more about Blue Delta Dealers, or contact your Ag Leader dealer for more information.

More Exhibits Expected at Agritechnica 2011

Cindy ZimmermanAgritechnica

Agritechnica 2011 is still over six months away, but already the world’s largest agricultural equipment and machinery show has ten percent more exhibitors than they had at this time for the last show in 2009.

AgritechnicaOrganizer DLG (German Agricultural Society) says 1,900 exhibitors from 44 countries are booked for Agritechnica 2011, to be held in Hanover, Germany November 15-19.

“We see growth in both domestic and international exhibitor numbers”, explains Agritechnica Project Manager Freya von Rhade. “Participation from Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands and North America in particular is conspicuously higher than it was in 2009.” Over 300 exhibitors are planning to present their products and services at Agritechnica for the first time.

Show organizers say the current positive mood among Europe’s farmers is leading the upswing in exhibit reservations. The last exhibition two years ago was attended by 2,300 exhibitors from 46 countries. More than 355,000 visitors, including 80,000 international visitors, came to Hanover to gather information about new and further developments in agricultural machinery and equipment.