Syngenta Receives EPA Registration for Fortenza

Kelly MarshallAgribusiness, Crop Protection, Insecticide, Syngenta

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved Syngenta‘s Fortenza® seed treatment insecticide for use on corn and cotton. Growers in areas with cutworm history, along with other pests like fall army worm, white grub, seadcorn maggot and wireworm, will be able to provide early-season protection with the active ingredient, cyantraniliprole. Fortenza is labeled to protect against insects above- and below-ground and can help battle resistance when used with other chemistries or traits.

“We designed Fortenza to complement our brands containing Cruiser® insecticide, and data shows combining these products enhances the spectrum of insect control activity, raising the bar of protection for U.S. growers,” said Dale Ireland, Ph.D., Seedcare technical product lead, Syngenta. “This combination will provide the most comprehensive early-season insect protection in the corn seed treatment market.”

SkySquirrel Leaps Ahead in Aerial Imaging

aerial, Agribusiness, AgWired Precision, Alltech, Audio, Drones

When Richard van der Put looked at the potential for his drone company, SkySquirrel Technologies, he found a niche in vineyards, but he also found a niche with his software.

“What you see in the market is, obviously, drones are being utilized more and more by farmers, but all of our competitors are basically using the same technology on the imagining side,” van der Put explains. “They give a generic health product that can tell you a bit of information about whether you have a problem or not in the field, but its not specific to what problem that is.”

SkySquirrel’s program, developed by a team member at NASA, gives very specific disease detection information, helping growers better understand the issues. One farmer in Chile, for example, was able to correct a soil companion issue, earning him big returns.

Working with the Pearse Lyons Accelerator program at Alltech has been a big help to this start-up company, and to vineyards globally. “They have a very good view of how the process works,” van der Put says of their expertise in sales.

Listen to more about SkySquirrel Technologies in Jamie’s interview here: Interview with Richard van der Put, SkySquirrel Technologies

Alltech ONE17 Photo Album

Agrilyst Fulfills Digital Need for Indoor Farming

AgWired Precision, Alltech, Audio, Data, Specialty Crops

Two years ago Allison Kopf left her job of finding ways to be innovative in greenhouse spaces to start a company that would fill a gaping need she saw. While she could find many programs for outdoor crops, Agrilyst is a software program specifically created for indoor farming.

The software is very specific, Kopf explains. It can be difficult to control variables in an outdoor setting, but inside data about temperature and irrigation can be exact, and it can be replicated, meaning finding ideal circumstances using data points is a reality that is making a huge difference for their customers.

The Agrilyst software does three things. It’s an API so it can connect to hardware a grower may already have and sync with sensors already in play. It also offers a way to digitize paperwork that used be done by hand, such as when and where things are planted. Last, it can analyze data across the spectrum, making accessible and actionable reports a grower can see and learn from over time.

Although her product fills and empty niche, Kopf credits the Pearse Lyons Accelerator program she’s been a part of for the last three months with helping her get the product into the hands of customers. “The Pearse Lyons Accelerator has been phenomenal for us. In the last 100 days or so we’ve actually doubled our revenue. I think what they did a really good job at doing was choosing companies who were similarly staged, because what we could do was not only learn from Dr. Lyons and the team at Alltech, but also from each other.”

Learn more about Alltech’s Pearse Lyons program and the Agrilyst software in Jamie’s interview with Kopf here:Interview with Allison Kopf, Agrilyst

2017 Alltech Ideas Conference Photo Album

Soil Health Institute Offers Grant

Kelly MarshallResources, Soil Health Institute

Those looking for funding for reviews of soil health-related scientific literature and supporting compilations need look no further. The Soil Health Institute (SHI) is accepting applications now to June 23, 2017. The SHI will fund up to five grants at a maximum of $8,000 each for preparation of literature searches and summaries of soil health or retailed fields like land management, ecosystem processes and services like agriculture production, human health, or other relevant topics.

Products expected from successful grantees include a list of publications and other sources (reliable reports, websites, databases, etc.) on the chosen topic; a brief summary of each source reviewed; and a review paper synthesizing this information. References, summaries, and the review paper will be deposited in the SHI Landscape tool on-line library for free public access.

See the SHI website for more information and application details.

Farm Market iD Covers More Than 1 Billion Acres

Kelly MarshallAgribusiness, Data

Farm Market iD‘s annual update is ready for more use on more than one billion acres. That’s likely because the FMiD proprietary data is the only farm and ranch source for detailed information that isn’t inferred or extrapolated. Instead it’s built on more than 100 different objective transactional sources, including some exclusive to FMiD.

Today, Farm Market iD is the only company that can provide deep farm and farmer insights based on current information. The data is built from the ground up starting with over 200 trillion data points including geospatial field boundaries for including over 300 million farm acres. These boundaries are then populated with crops at ¼ acre increments using a combination of county level data requests and remote sensed data. The geospatial boundaries are connected to individuals and entities thus allowing the summarization of crops and acres to the farm operation and ownership level.

“It is a Big Data exercise enacted by Big Data scientists,” commented Steve Rao, CEO.

Trump’s Proposed Budget Meets Mixed Reviews

Kelly MarshallAg Group, Crop Insurance, Farm Bill, Government, USDA

Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue offered a positive perspective, but farm groups are reacting to Trump’s proposed 2018 budget in the opposite way.   American Farm Bureau Federation, National Corn Growers Association, American Soybean Association, National Association of Conservation Districts, and whole list of Crop Insurance organizations oppose the $4 billion in cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“I don’t think there’s any reason to sugar coat this,” Perdue said to reporters on a press call Tuesday. “But I believe the people knew what they were doing when they elected President Trump…I think many believe as I do – I just don’t think it’s moral to continue to kick a $20 trillion debt down to our grandchildren.”

But many are worried about making these cuts considering the current agriculture economic situation.  “Targeting the federal crop insurance program is extremely shortsighted,” counters the National Corn Growers Association. “It is especially harmful during an extended period of low commodity prices. NCGA members consistently tell us that crop insurance is their most important risk management tool. This public-private partnership helps farmers manage their risk, and it saves taxpayers money in the long run by reducing reliance on ad hoc disaster assistance.”

Of course, its Congress who will make the budget decisions, so no matter which side you’re on, it’s simply a game of wait and see.

 

USFRA Promotes Agricultural Sustainability at Conference

AgWired Animal, AgWired Precision, sustainability, USFRA

The U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance® (USFRA®) is at the Sustainable Brands Conference in Detroit this week to showcase the sustainability of farmers and ranchers and unveil the first-ever Agriculture in America Sustainability Report.

The sustainability report builds on key insights from USFRA’s annual research that aims to identify and gain a clearer understanding of consumers’ perception of sustainability in U.S. food and agriculture. Through this research, findings conclude that consumers struggle to define sustainability. Moreover, the topic is best understood by consumers when farmers explain the tangible ways they are improving the water, soil, air and habitat on and around their farms.

USFRA is engaging attendees at the national event for brand leaders “who create environmental and social purpose to drive innovation” with the SMART Farm booth, allowing event goers to experience USFRA’s 360-degree videos highlighting how farmers use new technologies to enhance animal welfare, efficiency and sustainability.

Real smart farmers are also on hand to talk about modern food production. USFRA Chairman Brad Greenway of South Dakota and CommonGround volunteer Hilary Maricle of Nebraska, both crop and livestock farmers, are presenting at the conference about raising farm animals humanely, environmentally-sustainably, and profitably.

Latest In Irrigation Tech from Tevatronic

Kelly MarshallAlltech, Audio, Irrigation, technology

Oleg Korol was a software engineer for the Israeli army when he simply tired of the work and decided to run Tevatronic instead. He looked at several companies before finding this technology that measures plant pressure on the soil to decide when to turn irrigation on, and water depth to decide when to turn it off. If we have autonomous cars it just makes sense that we’d have irrigation that can make these decisions as well, he states, and so his decision was made.

But bringing technology to market isn’t as simple as a good idea, which is why Korol has also experienced his fair share of start-up accelerator programs. “The Pearse Lyons program is different,” Korol quips. “I actually learned something.”

As part of the Pearse Lyons program Tevatronics also had the opportunity to present at the ONE: Alltech Ideas Conference this week. Karol spoke about traditional irrigation systems and how they differ from their product. “This is an infrastructure. It’s a good infrastructure. It does a lot of good for the plants, but you need to be able to make the decision correctly, and that’s the difficulty,” he emphasizes.

Learn more about this cutting edge technology in Jamie’s interview with Korol here: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/one-17-accelerator-tevatronic.mp3″ text=”Interview with Oleg Korol, Tevatronic”]

2017 Alltech Ideas Conference Photo Album

GROWMARK Focuses on Young Leaders

Kelly MarshallEducation, Growmark

Fifteen agriculture students have been selected as the first class of recipients of the GROWMARK Foundation scholarship.

More than 125 students from across the United States and Ontario, Canada, applied for the award. Applications were evaluated by a panel of agribusiness professionals, and the funds are available for the fall 2018 semester.

“We are pleased to provide financial support to these fifteen outstanding students,” said Amy Bradford, GROWMARK manager, Corporate Communications and manager of The GROWMARK Foundation. “Their pursuit of higher education in agriculture will position them well to potentially become a part of the GROWMARK System in the future, whether that may be employment at GROWMARK or an FS member cooperative, or as a farmer-owner of their local cooperative.”

The GROWMARK Foundation is focused on programs and activities which support a variety of philanthropic efforts, including youth and young leader education and development and scholarships. ​
List of scholarship winners.

National Pollinator Week Webinars Available

Kelly MarshallBayer CropScience, Bees, pollinators

Bayer, Bee Culture and Project Apis m. are partnering to host live webinars in honor of National Pollinator Week (June 19–23). Webinars will provide information about research that is having a positive effect on honey been health. They will be held on Monday, June 19, Wednesday, June 21 and Friday, June 23 at 12 p.m. ET.

Research for these talks is made possible by the Healthy Hives 2020 initiative.  Registration is free and the videos can be replayed afterwards as well.

The webinars include:Read More