Precision Pays

Kreg Freeman of Colquitt, Georgia is a double winner for his 2010 peanut crop that yielded a whopping 6626 pounds per acre.

Kreg, pictured here with University of Georgia Extension Peanut Agronomist John Beasley accepting his award as the statewide winner in the Georgia Achievement Club this year for the 100-300 acre category, credits a good part of his increase in profitability and yields to precision technology, as much as 500 pounds per acre. “We use GPS and auto steer tractors,” he told me. “What I got paid for the auto steer part of the tractor in one year.”

Kreg was also named as the Farm Press Publications Peanut Profitability Award winner for the Southeast during last week’s 2011 Southern Peanut Growers Conference. That award is based not only on yield, but production efficiency, honoring those growers who produce the highest yields at the lowest cost per acre.

Listen to my interview with Kreg from the SPGC here: Kreg Freeman Interview

As work toward a new Farm Bill officially begins some are calling for a “whole-system redesign” of U.S. agriculture.

A recent report from the National Research Council Committee on Twenty-First Century Systems Agriculture has proposed a new direction for farm policy that would “incorporate innovative agricultural systems such as organic farming, grass-fed and other alternative livestock production systems, mixed crop and livestock systems, and perennial grains…. it would require significant changes in market structures, policy incentives and public funding for agricultural science.”

Increasing use of precision farming techniques is one of the recommendations made by the team, which included agricultural academics as well as farmers, suggesting “both incremental and transformative changes. Incremental changes include adopting two-year crop rotations and employing precision agriculture practices using geospatial technologies that track field variation, classically bred or genetically engineered crops and reduced- or no-tillage practices.”

The Senate agriculture committee started hearings on the 2012 Farm Bill last week. While USDA is not planning to propose a version of the Farm Bill as it has in the past, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recognized the obvious fact that agriculture policy will be affected by budget cuts. “I have no doubts that the next Farm Bill will be smaller than the one agreed to in 2008. In acknowledging that reality, I hope that this Committee will give serious thought to your priorities for American agriculture – your priorities for USDA – and to the values of the American people,” he told the committee.

Today, the first field hearing is being held in the home state of chairwoman Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, featuring agricultural representatives of all sectors, from corn and soybeans to cherries and apples.

Alltech is looking for videos that tell the story of how game changing innovations are helping farmers feed the world.

The Kentucky-based animal health and nutrition company has announced the first ever “Farming Film Festival,” offering a $2,000 grand prize. Following the theme of the Alltech 27th Annual International Animal Health and Nutrition Symposium, The Game Changers, video submissions should focus on an idea or technology that helps farmers meet the tough challenges in their career.

“Emerging new media such as YouTube and other social media outlets have been game changers for many in the agriculture industry,” said Dr. Pearse Lyons, president and founder of Alltech. “Sharing these game changing stories with others ignites a new wave of hope and innovation, and that’s what we hope to do with the Farming Film Festival.”

The rules are pretty simple. The video may be up to 2 minutes in length (including credits), it must tell the story of a farmer’s game changer and it must include footage of the farmer on the farm. That’s all there is to it. First prize is $2000, second is $500 and third is $250. First and Second Place Winners will be chosen by an independent panel of science and agriculture journalists. Third Place Winner will be the finalist with the largest number of online votes.

Participants in the Farming Film Festival may enter by uploading their video to YouTube and emailing the link to contest@alltech.com. Winners will be chosen by a panel of science and agriculture journalists based on creativity, quality of video, story interest and number of views and will be awarded up to $2,000 cash. The deadline for submission is May 13.

For official rules and how to participate, visit www.alltech.com/farmingfilmfestival.

Monsanto is facing a legal challenge from organic farmers over genetically modified seed.

The Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) filed suit this week on behalf of 60 family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations, against Monsanto Company as a preemptive measure “to protect themselves from being accused of patent infringement should they ever become contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically modified seed, something Monsanto has done to others in the past.”

“This case asks whether Monsanto has the right to sue organic farmers for patent infringement if Monsanto’s transgenic seed should land on their property,” said Dan Ravicher, PUBPAT’s Executive Director and Lecturer of Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. “It seems quite perverse that an organic farmer contaminated by transgenic seed could be accused of patent infringement, but Monsanto has made such accusations before and is notorious for having sued hundreds of farmers for patent infringement, so we had to act to protect the interests of our clients.”

Monsanto calls the organization’s allegations “false, misleading and deceptive.”

The plaintiffs’ approach is a publicity stunt designed to confuse the facts about American agriculture. These efforts seek to reduce private and public investment in the development of new higher-yielding seed technologies. This attack comes at a time when the world needs every agricultural tool available to meet the needs of a growing population, expected to reach 9 billion people by 2050. While we respect the opinion of organic farmers as it relates to the products they choose to grow, we don’t believe that American agriculture faces an all-or-nothing approach. Rather we believe that farmers should have the ability to choose the best agricultural tools to farm their own land and serve their own end-market customers. We are confident that these multiple approaches can coexist side-by-side and sustainably meet the world’s food needs over next 40 years.

Planting season is almost upon us now, which means a new year for farmers to discover how they can increase yields and profitability.

GROWMARK FS Green Plan Solutions helps farmers do just that. I recently spoke with Jim Spradlin, vice president of agronomy for FS Green Plan, about how they help their farmers.

“The FS system works very hard to differentiate ourselves by providing good, strong agronomic advice to our growers,” Jim told me during the “Pursuit of Maximum Yield” conference earlier this year. FS Green Plan Solutions also offers On-Farm Discovery, a scientific-method based trial program, helping farmers answer their questions on their farm with their data. The Pursuit of Maximum Yield is an On-Farm Discovery program specifically geared toward increasing yield per acre in light of a booming world population and rapidly increasing demand.

“We had some 200 On-Farm Discovery plots out last year, over 100 of them were Pursuit of Maximum Yield specific,” Jim said. “We’re doing trials on other things so that we’re extracting good information and accurate results so we can present back some of the findings from the trials.”

Jim notes that because every field, every operation and every farmer is different, everyone needs to develop their own “recipe” based on what they learn works best for them.

Listen to my interview with Jim here: Jim Spradlin Interview

FS Green Plan Solutions, an integrated, solutions-based approach designed to help producers enhance farm profitability by providing complete agronomic recommendations from a trusted team of FS specialists.

The 2011 Commodity Classic is one for the record books.

Attendance at the annual meeting of corn, soybean, wheat and sorghum growers shattered previous records. Total attendance was more than 4826, breaking the previous record at Nashville three years ago by almost 300. Total number of growers was over 1600, compared to the previous record of 1513 in 2009 in Grapevine. The number of media was down a bit, but still a pretty substantial 126. Next year, Classic is back in Nashville, maybe to set yet another record!

In a show of unity, the leadership of the National Corn Growers Association, the National Association of Wheat Growers, the American Soybean Association and the National Sorghum Producers issued a joint statement on the federal deficit and debt reduction following the conclusion of the Classic business sessions.

“We note that agriculture made a down payment in cutting spending when the Department of Agriculture directed $4 billion in savings under the Standard Reinsurance Agreement for federal crop insurance toward deficit reduction. We believe any further reduction in discretionary spending should recognize and reflect this contribution. We would also note that agriculture-related programs represent less than one-half of one percent of the federal budget.

“Looking forward, we believe any meaningful approach to deficit and debt reduction in the FY2012 budget must encompass all entitlement programs and all discretionary spending. We look forward to working with Congress and the Administration to develop a budget that successfully addresses the need for federal deficit and debt reduction balanced with the need of ensuring a successful agricultural economy.”

Special thanks to John Deere for helping to sponsor our coverage of the 2011 Commodity Classic!

2011 Commodity Classic Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2011 Commodity Classic

Achieving maximum yields is the goal when you are pursuing them and that is what the farmers who participate in the GROWMARK FS Green Plan Solutions program are accomplishing.

At the recent “Pursuit of Maximum Yields” (POMY) seminar in East Peoria, I talked with Justin Green of Arthur, Illinois who participated with his father and brother in the program last season. “We kinda threw every thing at the corn crop that we could, trying to see what the yield potential of the corn crop is and what pieces add to the yield,” he said. “We had a fantastic corn yield and that plot actually won the Illinois Corn Growers yield contest.”

When I asked Justin what maximizing yields means to him, he said, “Maximizing yields means enhancing our management practices, doing the same thing that we’ve always done is not going to meet the yield goal of 300 bushels per acre, so we’re going to have to change things.” He added that he would recommend the FS Green Plan POMY program for any grower. “Absolutely, so that they can determine what their yield potential is and what they need to do to take their farm to the next level.”

Listen to my interview with Justin here: Justin Green Interview

FS Green Plan Solutions, an integrated, solutions-based approach designed to help producers enhance farm profitability by providing complete agronomic recommendations from a trusted team of FS specialists.

Monsanto has started a program this year in the Midwest to deliver IntelliScanSM field guides and IntelliSeedSM custom planting recommendations to farmers. It’s the first phase of a program called Monsanto Prescriptive Ag Solutions, according to a company press release.

“Today, farmers are looking for advances in seed technologies and precision planting practices that will enable them to produce more, conserve more and remain profitable,” said Julie LaBonte, Monsanto Prescriptive Ag Business Manager. “These tools are Monsanto’s next steps toward providing increased confidence in seed choice, placement and plant population for field-specific recommendations.”

Farmers in the pilot program are also receiving IntelliSeed custom planting recommendations that enhance the crop management decisions for the current year, as well as provide insight for future crop decisions.

Find out more here.

It’s one thing for growers or livestock producers and processors to work together, or vertically integrate. But what can happen when the World Wildlife Fund, Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Cargill, Intervet/Schering-Plough and beef producer groups get together? A recent story in the Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) discusses the issue and the possible eco-food results.

It is a subtle, yet vital, shift in the way food producers, manufacturers, retailers and groups outside the traditional food fence, such as WWF, are addressing a new paradigm in feeding the world’s rapidly increasing population: how food is produced, not just how much.

In practice the two issues are inseparable. The difference is that while feeding a projected 9 billion people by 2050 from less farmland has long concerned governments, and global aid and food bodies, doing so in a way that satisfies escalating environmental and animal welfare scrutiny, state and national regulations and changing consumer attitudes is considerably more complex.

Behind the farm gate it means that practices in the largest and most advanced agricultural nations, including Australia, will be in the spotlight as the new food production ground rules take shape.

Enter WWF as the unexpected and uninvited powerbroker in this high-stakes scenario. The world’s largest independent conservation organisation is targeting 100 key companies that globally trade commodities including beef, sugar, cotton, palm oil, soybeans and coffee to participate in ”round table” forums about how extra food can be produced with fewer, but more precise, inputs.

WWF’s Australian program leader for water, Nick Heath, says three times more food and fibre will be needed in the next 40 years than is produced now. ”The answer lies in precision agriculture – more crop per drop.”

And Rob Cairns, the organisation’s Australian program manager for sustainable agriculture, who has a background in the cotton and sugar industries, assures the food chain that WWF is ”just one player” in the quest for a lower food environmental footprint, ”not the policeman”.

”It’s about sustaining food production without impacting on eco-systems,” he says. ”At the moment, it’s confusing for consumers. By default, organics have been seen as the answer. But organics can’t clothe and feed the world, so we have to work with those who can make a difference. And it has to involve a number of commodities.”

Beef is at the top of that list.

In this regard, the Australian cattle industry may be ahead of the game. Meat & Livestock Australia is developing a voluntary environmental module that will enable beef producers to demonstrate the ”environmental responsible nature” of their production systems.

But it remains unclear whether farmers’ ability to merely demonstrate environmental responsibility, rather than prove it, will be enough.

To this end, a group of cattle producers in Gippsland, Victoria, is marketing beef sourced from properties with independently audited environmental management systems that comply with the international ISO 14001 standard. Their ”enviromeat beef”, sourced from 15 suppliers, is thought to be the first labelled food product backed by an environmental management system in Australia.

Read on to learn more…

Precision agriculture is playing a much larger role in helping potato growers become more sustainable, according to a recent story in Spudman.

Bruce Crapo, a grower of 6,000 acres of commercial potatoes and 2,000 acres of seed potatoes in Idaho, is a good example of how the average potato farmer looks at precision agriculture – he uses technology to reduce costs, increase output and improve profits.

Crapo isn’t thrilled at the cost of high-tech equipment such as GPS-guided tractors, but he knows it’s saving him money and there’s no way he can turn back now.

“There is a substantial initial cost involved,” Crapo said. “But I also know it is saving me money. What do you do? Go back to what you were doing before? That’s not an option.”

Crapo, who uses Global Positioning System (GPS) technology on all his planters and harvesters, said the latest precision ag technology has taken farming to a different level.

“It’s light years ahead of what it was when we were doing it by hand,” he said. “We’re not going to go back to not using it, but we are wincing a little at the cost.”

Precision agriculture can loosely be defined as using new technologies such as GPS, sensors, variable rate application equipment and aerial or satellite images to make farming easier and more profitable.

Simply put, precision agriculture can help farmers improve their margins by decreasing their operating costs.

Idaho farmer Robert Blair, owner of PineCreek Precision, says the biggest benefit of precision farming is that it gives producers the ability to manage their farm on a production zone basis rather than a whole field basis. This shift, he said, allows farmers to save time and money and helps them offset the rising cost of chemicals, nutrients, fuel and fertilizer.

Blair uses a wide array of precision agriculture techniques on his 1,500-acre farm and said the technology is saving him tens of thousands of dollars every year.

Read on to learn more…

Precision agriculture means more than just the use of equipment and technology to save time and money, it also means the “application of technologies and agronomic principles to manage spatial and temporal variability associated with all aspects of agricultural production for the purpose of improving crop performance and environmental quality.”

At the recent GROWMARK FS Green Plan Solutions “In Pursuit of Maximum Yields” conference in East Peoria, growers and consultants heard from two University of Illinois experts on how to maximize corn and soybean yields.

Dr. Fred Below gave his “Seven Wonders of the Corn Yield World” presentation to the audience. “The seven wonders concept was designed for us to put a value and ranking behind those factors that every year impact corn yields,” said Dr. Below. “Number one is the weather, number two is my favorite – nitrogen, three is the most important decision farmers make each year – hybrid selection, number four has to do with crop the year before, number five is plant population, number six is tillage or no tillage and number seven is a new broad category called growth regulators. And these factors together can combine and maximize to produce up to 260 bushels.”

Listen to my interview with Dr. Fred Below here: Fred Below Interview

Dr. Vince Davis discussed how it takes a total management approach to increase soybean yields. “In soybeans, increasing yields is a really tough game to get into,” Vince told me. “About 10 bushels, 9 and a half bushels an acre is about what we were able to obtain in our large plots, and that’s about what I’ve seen as a maximum level that we can increase. If you can put up 10 extra bushels at $13 beans, that’s a lot of extra money.”

Vince urges farmers to get as much information as they can and experiment to find out what works on their own operations and he had praise for GROWMARK and FS Green Plan Solutions agronomists working with producers. “We worked with one of our local agronomists at the Illini FS location and they are doing a great job getting on the farms, finding out what growers are interested in doing, what does and doesn’t work on the farm, and do it all from the standpoint of economics,” he said.

Listen to my interview with Dr. Vince Davis here: Vince Davis Interview

FS Green Plan Solutions, an integrated, solutions-based approach designed to help producers enhance farm profitability by providing complete agronomic recommendations from a trusted team of FS specialists.

“The pursuit of maximum yields will take you to the next level.”

That’s what GROWMARK Agronomy Services Manager Dr. Howard Brown told over 300 farmers and farm consultants meeting in Peoria on Friday for a FS Green Plan Solutions conference focused on pursuing maximum yields for corn and soybeans.

“We came up with this concept of pursuit of maximum yield so that we can maximum return, optimize inputs, while minimizing environmental impact and there’s no better message to get out right now, not only to the farmer but also to the general public,” Howard told me in an interview.

“We’re doing great at raising 160 bushel corn and 50 bushel soybeans but as we move to higher yields, we’re finding that it may not be one product, it may be a multiple set of products that make us get to the next level,” he said, referring to Liebig’s Law of the Minimum, where if one thing is limiting nothing else will work until the limiting factor is fixed.

Howard was really excited about the turnout for the event on Friday and the enthusiasm of those who attended.

Listen to my interview with Dr. Howard Brown here: Howard Brown Interview

See photos from the event here.

FS Green Plan Solutions, an integrated, solutions-based approach designed to help producers enhance farm profitability by providing complete agronomic recommendations from a trusted team of FS specialists.

FS Green Plan Solutions, part of the Growmark company, sponsored a great conference in Peoria today for about 300 farmers and consultants around Illinois and surrounding states all focused on the pursuit of maximum yields for corn and soybeans.

The event started off with a dynamic presentation by Purdue University economist Dr. Mike Boehlji, who discussed the good news of demand for exports and biofuels, as well as the challenges for meeting that demand.

One of Dr. Boehlji’s main points is that American agriculture is facing increasing competition from other countries, so farmers need to become increasingly efficient by thinking in terms of biological manufacturing. “We’re increasingly thinking about farming the way you think about a manufacturing process,” he said. “We’re using GPS technology to not only monitor what the yield is across the field, but we’re actually using it now to change the rate of application in fertilizer and chemicals. We’re using that technology to find out where the wet spots are. We’re using a lot of information technology, we’re using sensing technology more, we’re using a better nutritional technology.” Process control technologies, like irrigation control, as well as auto steer tractors, and of course improved hybrids all contribute to running agricultural operations more like manufacturing operations.

Hear more in my interview with Dr. Boehlji here: Mike Boehlji Interview

FS Green Plan Solutions, an integrated, solutions-based approach designed to help producers enhance farm profitability by providing complete agronomic recommendations from a trusted team of FS specialists.

Precision communications pays, too. Learn how to help promote your farm, your agriculture, using social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. These tools can truly help communicate the importance of what we’re doing, and it’s vitally important that we know how to use them, properly and regularly.

Throughout 2011, the National Corn Growers Association will hold a series of hourly webinars – online tutorials – to help our members and others learn how to use some of these tools, such as Facebook and Twitter. This series of monthly webinars is provided free, courtesy the generous support of Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont Business.

These webinars will be held on the following dates:

January 20, 10:30 a.m. CST
February 17
March 17
April 28
May 19
June 16
July 21
August 18
September 15
October 20
November 17
December 15

Times and dates are subject to change. It is important to register to keep informed about changes.

The first three topics are:

January: Review the goals of the series, and why growers should take the time to participate. We will define the objectives and review the “return on investment” of engaging in social media and how it fits within the context of agriculture. We will also review how it is being used successfully by others in the industry to further support reasons to engage. Also, we will discuss how participants can track their personal social media success.

February: This will be a nuts and bolts webinar that offers a checklist of basic skills. We will review how to create profiles on various sites, how to start building a following and social media essentials to move to the next level.

March: Focus on Facebook and how to use it, when to use it, and pitfalls to avoid.

Click here to register for the January webinar.

Click here to sign up for NCGA’s e-mail list, to be notified before each upcoming webinar, so you can register, and to receive important updates throughout the year. Important: Under “Your Interests,” please make sure to select “Social Media Webinars 2011.”

Once these webinars are completed, they will be archived at the NCGA Online Learning Center.

NCGA in Social Media

http://www.facebook.com/corngrowers
www.twitter.com/nationalcorn
www.youtube.com/nationalcorngrowers
www.flickr.com/photos/ncgapictures
www.corncommentary.com

Pioneer Hi-Bred in Social Media

www.facebook.com/pioneerhibred
www.twitter.com/pioneerhibred
www.youtube.com/user/PioneerHB

Technology is empowering rural workers in China, thanks to China Mobile’s Nongxintong, a paid farming information service launched four years ago in conjunction with the agricultural ministry, according to a BBC report. China Mobile runs a website, 12582.com, that sends text message information to farmers about everything from market prices to agronomic techniques.

Straining to control a deafening, bucking, fuel-powered plough, Qing Zhongxing prepares a strip of land ahead of sowing next season’s harvest of rapeseed.

Throttling down at the next turn, he pauses to check his mobile phone: it is the latest news on pork prices.

On the other side of the village, in Chongqing’s Dazu County, beekeeper Long Ximing is too engrossed in his honeycombs – and avoiding being stung – to check on his phone’s shrill alert.

Nonetheless, like Mr Qing and 20 million others in rural China, he is a big fan of mobile farming.

China Mobile’s Nong Xin Tong – or farming information service – launched four years ago. The company is currently focusing on expanding its delivery in China’s west and south-west regions.

“Building the mobile network and covering most of the country’s administrative villages, we realised that there was only a network signal. In rural areas, this is not enough,” explains Liu Jing, a local manager for the service at China Mobile.

“It’s like having a highway and no cars!”

Indeed, while most farming households in China now have mobile phones, very few have internet. So their main source for information was via television – that is, if they could be bothered to watch serious programming after a day out in the fields.

So, China Mobile created Nongxintong to deliver information and news directly to the farmer via their mobiles.

Read on here…