Common Ground Grows Food Dialogues

The national Common Ground conference took place in Washington D.C. last weekend. The event, sponsored by the United Soybean Board and the National Corn Growers Association, was created to help farm women learn how to better communicate with urban women about the safety and security of their food. “The ideas is that women are the primary grocery shoppers in the …

Ethanol, Media & RFS Focus of Ethanol Report

With the Iowa caucuses coming up February 1, the Hawkeye State has been inundated with both candidates and reporters, and ethanol has become a topic for mainstream media to report about, often inaccurately. In this Ethanol Report, Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) president and CEO Bob Dinneen discusses the inaccurate terms being used to describe the RFS, urges the media and …

GROWMARK Introduces Sustainability Initiative

GROWMARK is launching a new sustainability initiative called Endure that will reinforce the company’s commitment to sustainability. The program is a System-wide effort to ensure continued profitability for the company, owners, and customers, while developing programs that help the environment and greater good. “In the GROWMARK System, we believe it is our responsibility to ensure our earth and industry perform …

A Zippy 500th ZimmCast

We wanted our 500th ZimmCast to be something special so we felt it appropriate to spotlight the new president of the American Farm Bureau Federation who has a name that is sure to be unforgettable – Zippy Duvall of Georgia. Duvall, who served as president of Georgia Farm Bureau for nine years, was elected as AFBF’s 12th president at the …

#SHPsummit16

The 2016 Soil Health Summit was held in Indianapolis January 21-22. The Soil Health Partnership, is a National Corn Growers Association Initiative, with Initial Support From Monsanto and The Walton Family Foundation and with technical support from The Nature Conservancy. SHP has a goal to learn more about soil health and share the information with farmers. 2016 Soil Health Summit …

Agrible Appointed to Data Privacy and Security Board

Agrible, Inc. is pleased to announce its appointment to the interim board of a coalition to address the importance of big data privacy, security, and transparency for growers. This coalition of leading farm and commodity associations, growers and companies – startups and large corporations alike – will work to promote privacy and security principles for farm data. According to an …

Mavrx Launches Nationwide Imagery Service

A revolutionary approach on a national scale is bringing low-cost, high-quality on-demand imagery to US farmers in 2016. The aerial program has been developed and tested in 2015 by Mavrx®, a global innovator in delivering on-demand and actionable agronomic information from aerial and space-based imaging. Already partnered with many of the industry’s leading service providers and growers, Mavrx will expand …

Happy N Month

Nitrogen is one of the most important inputs for growers so with the new year and preparing for the coming growing season GROWMARK has proclaimed right now N-Month. GROWMARK Director of Strategic Agronomy Marketing Lance Ruppert says this is a good time of the year for particularly corn farmers to take some time to consider strategic ways to manage nitrogen …

ZimmCast All About Spuds & Politics

In this week’s program we meet John Keeling, CEO of the National Potato Council who speaks about policy issues and Blair Richardson, President & CEO of the United States Potato Board, who unveiled the Spud Nation Food Truck. Chuck Zimmerman met both of these guys while covering the Potato Expo last week for his first time. Listen to this week’s …

Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit 2016

The 10th Annual Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit took place January 19 in Altoona, Iowa with record crowds. The day was kicked off by USDA Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack. Other notable speakers included Joe Jobe, CEO of the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) who gave the keynote as well as Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds. Of note, during …

Isreal Reopens for US Beef Imports

This week’s audio report from the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF) discusses Israel’s recent decision to reopen to US beef. This will be the first time the country has allow US beef imports since December 2003, when the first confirmed case of BSE in the United States led many countries, including Israel, to suspend imports of U.S. beef. Israel is …

Real Growers Discuss Experiences with Liberty Link

If you listen to farm radio you probably have heard spots for Bayer’s LibertyLink system. Last fall they included promotion for the RealYield game which ended December 31, 2015. Those commercials, moderated by Cindy, came from real interviews with real growers like Reid Atha from northwest Missouri. Here is a full interview instead of just a sixty second spot. Cindy …

The Forecast Calls for Dormex

Fueled by the strongest El Nino on record, rains are coming in waves across the country. Given the unusual weather pattern, growers are more concerned than ever about proper application timing to get the best results from their plant growth regulator (PGR). They want to know how soon it can rain after application and still achieve product performance using Dormex. …

Barnstorm Helps Growers Share Their Stories

What does reputation have to do with farming and ranching? Actually, a lot! The folks at Osborn Barr truly believe it and have launched Barnstorm, a site solely dedicated to helping farmers and ranchers share their story, build their brand and establish a trusted reputation. Karen Pfautsch, Director of Barnstorm, sat down with cattle producers during the recent Missouri Cattlemen’s …

Vilsack Talks Trade, Climate & SOTU

USDA Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack held a press call yesterday to discuss President Obama’s last State of the Union (SOTU) address. Vilsack, who has served in the capacity of Ag Secretary throughout Obama’s Administration, said he is very proud to have been part of an administration that has basically taken the country from a brink of an economic collapse to …