Precision Pays

The Iowa Power Farming Show manager is Andy Goodman and he’s been happy with the weather. He’s also happy with the attendance and the 600 exhibitors! Technology is taking an ever bigger role in the industry and in the show.

The show is owned and operated by the Iowa-Nebraska Equipment Distributors Association. Andy says the show has a long history and just keeps growing.

Listen to Ken Root’s interview with Andy here: Interview with Andy Goodman

In our latest ZimmPoll we asked the question, “Do you agree with President Obama’s call for more clean (renewable) energy?” Overwhelmingly, the answer was Yes at 74%, however, there were 24% saying no. Feel free to comment on the reason for your choice.

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “What do you think about the proposed Egg Products Inspection legislation?” Let us know what you think. You can find the currently proposed House Bill here.

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

The 57th Iowa Power Farming Show kicked off today and we want to thank Iowa farm broadcast legend Ken Root for helping us out. Ken was on hand to take photos and conduct some interviews for us starting with David King, Ag Leader Technology.

David says that Ag Leader Technology has been sponsoring the show for seven years. It has been a great venue for them to see client and the weather has really cooperated this year. It will be interesting to see what the total attendance is by show end. He says Ag Leader guidance products have been very well received and farmers are looking for equipment that pays back to the bottom line.

Listen to Ken’s interview with David here: Interview with David King

Our latest ZimmPoll asked a very timely question since it’s on a topic that is the subject of a cover story on USA Today. We asked, “How will proposed changes to child labor in agriculture regulations affect farms?” Seventy percent said Negatively, seventeen percent said No Effect and only thirteen percent said Positively.

You may know that last fall the Department of Labor proposed changes that many believe could have major impacts on family farms and farm life (proposed rule – pdf). This is just another example of unnecessary government intrusion in private business and lives in my opinion. We don’t need it but . . . as if the government knows better. Riiight. You can find out more from this DOL early news release.

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “Do you agree with President Obama’s call for more clean (renewable) energy?” Let us know what you think. He definitely issued a call during his State of the Union speech last night. Here’s an excerpt:

We have subsidized oil companies for a century. That’s long enough. It’s time to end the taxpayer giveaways to an industry that’s rarely been more profitable, and double-down on a clean energy industry that’s never been more promising. Pass clean energy tax credits and create these jobs.

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

In our latest ZimmPoll we asked the question “Do you think there is currently an “Ag Bubble?” It looks like most think so since 66% said Yes and 34% said No. That’s kind of a pessimistic outlook don’t you think? If you think we’re in a bubble please feel free to comment on why. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Our new ZimmPoll is now live. We’re asking the question, “How will proposed changes to child labor in agriculture regulations affect farms?” Last fall the Department of Labor proposed changes that many believe could have major impacts on family farms and farm life (proposed rule – pdf). At best it seems like there are some good intentions without careful consideration of the consequences and then there’s always that “how does the Dept. of Labor interpret the rules thing.” A public comment period ended on December 1, 2011.

Here’s some language about the proposed changes from an early news release:

The proposal would strengthen current child labor regulations prohibiting agricultural work with animals and in pesticide handling, timber operations, manure pits and storage bins. It would prohibit farmworkers under age 16 from participating in the cultivation, harvesting and curing of tobacco. And it would prohibit youth in both agricultural and nonagricultural employment from using electronic, including communication, devices while operating power-driven equipment.

The department also is proposing to create a new nonagricultural hazardous occupations order that would prevent children under 18 from being employed in the storing, marketing and transporting of farm product raw materials. Prohibited places of employment would include country grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feed lots, stockyards, livestock exchanges and livestock auctions.

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

On our sister site, AgWired, my weekly ZimmCast podcast features a conversation you may be interested in hearing. In this week’s program we use the M word, as in Mobile, as in Float Mobile Learning. I just had a conversation with Chad Udell, Managing Director, about mobile learning technology and what that means for today’s agribusiness customers, including in the precision sector.

Float Mobile’s parent company is the Iona Group. Chad says the company has a deep history working with agribusiness companies like GROWMARK, Pioneer and Bayer. He says, “There’s a great amount of demand in the marketplace to put the right information in the right people’s hands at the right time.” He says that when growers need information they’re often away from the computer and out in the field. Examples include working with clients to put mobile and updated information in the hands of sales staff at a farm show. Tablets like an iPad or Android device are very cost effective for this purpose. In fact, Chad says mobile application development is surprisingly affordable. He says these applications are simple and do one or two things very well. Float Mobile uses a S3D Process with their clients which means Strategy, Design, Develop, Deliver. He says they work quickly since the whole mobile device world is changing rapidly today.

To learn more about Float Mobile Learning listen in to this week’s program: Float Mobile Learning

Check out their 2012 predictions for the Mobile Landscape on their blog.

Things are looking bleak for the proposed LightSquared LTE network according to a story in PC World.

A key federal agency involved in testing the proposed LightSquared LTE network has concluded that there is no practical way to solve interference between that network and GPS, possibly dealing a crippling blow to the startup carrier’s hopes for a terrestrial mobile network.

That agency is the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Executive Committee (PNT ExComm). Now that’s a mouthful. The agencies that make up this one have unanimously concluded that none of the LightSquared proposals would overcome interference with GPS.

Here’s an excerpt from the letter to the FCC:

Earlier this week we published results of our ZimmPoll that showed a majority think the LightSquared proposal would be good for ag/rural America. However, most of those positive responses all came at nearly the same time.

In our latest ZimmPoll we asked the question, “What do you think of the LightSquared broadband internet proposal?” This controversial issue has pitted GPS services and hardware manufacturers against those who want better broadband internet service in their area and agriculture is only one of the industries that could be impacted. Interestingly, our poll results were mostly against the proposal until one afternoon when almost all of the “positive” results were posted. That suggests that there was a concerted effort to impact the results. So here they are. We had 73% say that the proposal would be Good for ag/rural America and 23% say it would be Bad for ag/rural America. What do you think about that?

Our new ZimmPoll is now live. We’re asking the question, “Do you think there’s currently an “Ag Bubble”?” Let us know what you think.

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

John Deere talked up its latest application for cotton growers during this year’s Beltwide Cotton Conferences. Harvest Identification Cotton will continue to automate the production of a cotton module. This is tied into the 7760 cotton picker. The application will use the RFID tags that are embedded into the module wrap. These will be captured by an RFID reader on the cotton picker and then that information will be complied along with data from the John Deere Starfire receiver. That will generate a file that can be sent to the ginner and grower. Janae says it will be available soon.

Listen in to my interview with Janae here: Interview with Janae Althouse

2012 Beltwide Cotton Conferences Photo Album

At the Beltwide Cotton Conferences I met Joe Wyrick, President, EWR, Inc. His company has a division called eCotton which “is dedicated to supplying the information processing needs of the cotton industry.” One of the new ways they’re doing that is with a brand new smartphone app called MyModules.

Cotton producers can register new cotton modules and have them transmitted to the gin automatically, with GPS coordinates if you like.

View summary status of all of your bales.

This caught my attention since it is available for the iPhone and Android platforms. Joe gave me a demonstration on his iPhone.

Joe says the app electronically solves the problem of getting harvested cotton module data from the grower to the gin. It’s a two way flow so the grower also gets information back from the gin. A helpful feature is that the app captures data for later transmission if there is no local mobile carrier signal. That’s pretty handy.

Learn more about this new ag app in my interview with Joe here: Interview with Joe Wyrick

2012 Beltwide Cotton Conferences Photo Album

Wild weather was the winner for the biggest ag story of 2011 according to our latest ZimmPoll. We asked the question, “What do you think is biggest ag story of 2011?” Wild weather got 40% or the response followed by Record farm land value – 17%; New free trade agreements – 16%; High commodity prices – 16%; Super committee “no”- farm bill – 11% and Record U.S. farm exports at a big fat 0%. Weather, it’s always on the top of a farmer’s mind and with good reason.

Our new ZimmPoll is now live. We’re asking the question, “What do you think of the LightSquared broadband internet proposal?” This is certainly a hotly debated topic with GPS companies and users very concerned over the implications. If you need more information about it you can find lots of resources online here, here and here.

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

It looks like beef wins in our latest ZimmPoll. We asked the question, “What is your Christmas/Holiday dinner entree?” Beef got 34% of the vote followed by Pork – Ham/Other cut at 27%, then Turkey at 24%, then Lobster and Wild game each got 7% and Fish at 1%. I guess you normally only have one at a time but I like them all!

Our new ZimmPoll is now live. We’re asking the question, “What do you think is biggest ag story of 2011?” There were a lot of big ag stories so we had to pick a few that stood out for us. Let us know what you think.

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

A significant majority believe that ethanol production is a good thing. In answer to our question, “Is Ethanol production good for ALL of Agriculture?” 64% said yes and 36% said no. That still shows a large group who aren’t on board the ethanol bandwagon. If you’re in the “no” group let us know why by posting a comment.

Our new ZimmPoll is now live. We’re asking the question, “What is your Christmas/Holiday entree?” The holidays are almost here and I’ll be you’ve got plans made already. We sure hope you have a happy holiday time with family and friends.

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

Gadgets – 28%, are tops on the Christmas gift list according to our lates ZimmPoll, followed closely by Paying Bills – 25%. Those choices were followed by Clothes, 19%; Other, 14%; Farm Equipment, 9% and Tools, 5%. I find it very interesting that no one chose Food! Wow. Food makes a great gift don’t you think? Maybe we’re all so well fed that our focus has turned to other things? What do you think?

Our new ZimmPoll is now live. We’re asking the question, “Is Ethanol production good for ALL of Agriculture?” There’s a huge amount of on-going rhetoric about this subject and it seems to be a very divisive issue within the ag community. Let’s put it this way, the most heated arguments/debates I’ve heard or participated in this year were on this subject! What do you think?

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