Precision Pays

Thanks to our Precision Pays readers for helping us hit 50,000 unique visitors in 2011! That’s an increase of 3.5% over 2010. We look forward to kicking that up another notch in 2012.

Our Precision Pays reporters brought you a total of 380 stories, including over 80 with audio interviews or podcasts and 15 YouTube videos. The most popular YouTube video of the year was the John Deere Subcompact Utility Tractor Unveiling at the National Farm Machinery Show, which has been viewed almost 40,000 times.

Some of the most popular stories of the year on Precision Pays were:

John Deere introduces Farm Sight
Corn Choppers at Farm Progress Show
John Deere product launch
Drones tested for Ag Use
LightSquared Wireless Broadband Issues
JD Combine Can sculpture

Best wishes to all for a healthy, happy, prosperous and blessed new year!

ZimmComm New Media is proud to announce the very first (that we know of) Ag Events Calendar.

This slick 10×15 wall calendar includes dates for all the major ag-related events in 2012, along with photos each month from the 2011 events that we covered. There’s photos from the Iowa Power Farming Show, National Farm Machinery Show, Commodity Classic, Farm Progress Show and lots more.

We ordered a limited number of the calendars to give to some of our clients for Christmas, but then discovered that there are lots of other folks out there who would like to get a copy, so we are ordering more and offering them for sale.

For just $20 each plus $2 shipping/handling, you can get your very own 2012 Ag Events calendar here:

Order 2012 ZimmComm Ag Events Calendar.

The AgChat Foundation (ACF) and the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) have partnered up to help farmers and ranchers share their stories with the general public.

“The core vision of the AgChat Foundation is to empower farmers and ranchers to share their stories,” said Darin Grimm, Kansas farmer and AgChat Foundation president. “We are excited to partner with USFRA to build and expand those conversations”

Playing to their strengths, the AgChat Foundation will be a key partner in USFRA’s Food Dialogues event on September 22. The event, a simultaneous grouping of four live meetings around the country as well as online participation, will feature a series of different panels discussing different topics in key locations. The goal of Food Dialogues is to answer the questions that Americans are asking about their food. The AgChat Foundation will help engage the online agricultural community through a strategic social media campaign in order to build excitement in the weeks leading up to and during the event. To learn more about Food Dialogues, visit www.fooddialogues.com.

As education coordinator for Precision Planting, Sean Arians has the opportunity to preach the message of how precision planting pays at farm shows like Farm Progress, demonstrating it live on-site.

“Everybody loves to see equipment moving,” Sean told Chuck Zimmerman during an interview at FPS. “We have a tractor running around on a sand track with eight different row units to compare performance of the meter and then we also have a 2020 Seed Sense monitor in the cab that allows us to communicate that information from the cab so everyone can see that around the track.”

Sean says help farmers maximize production and return on investment. “Technology is not a $5,000 investment anymore,” he said. “However, the end all benefit is usually a very quick pay back” in terms of input cost savings.

Sean is also an advocate for using technology for communications and was a beta tester for the new CropNAtion agricultural social network. “In today’s marketplace, it’s important to manage risk and part of that is having information at your fingertips,” he says. “CropNation allows farmers to get connected and find out what’s going on in various parts of the country. It provides a lot of opportunity for us to network and share ideas.”

Listen to or download Chuck’s interview with Sean here. Sean Arians with Precision Planting

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

They’re not the kind of choppers that turn corn into silage – they are the kind that turn heads on the highway.

A father and son custom motorcycle design team split up to create corn-themed choppers for two different corn seed companies – Dekalb and Beck’s Hybrids.

The relatively friendly competition produced the Beck’s Hybrids 75th Anniversary custom built Orange County Choppers motorcycles on display in the company’s tent at FPS 2011. The one on the left has a combine corn head with ears of corn for handles and both have vintage farm scenes on the gas tanks, designed by Paul Teutul Sr., CEO of Orange County Choppers.

You can stop by the Beck’s tent to enter to win one of these bikes in the We Care for Orphans Adoption Fund Sweepstakes. The drawing will be held on Feb. 22, 2012 and the winner will be announced at Commodity Classic in Nashville, Tenn., March 1 – 3, 2012.

Meanwhile, Dekalb showcased their 100th anniversary custom made chopper designed by son Paul Jr., who rode the bike ahead of the crowd as the main gate entrance opened at Farm Progress Show on Tuesday.

The Dekalb chopper will be auctioned next year with all proceeds going to the American Red Cross, after traveling across approximately 10 states on a 14-20 stop Chopper Tour around rural America following the Farm Progress Show reveal.

The build and reveal of both the seed companies’ commemorative choppers will be featured on upcoming episodes of “American Chopper” on The Discovery Channel.

Watch the opening gate video from FPS 2011 below:

2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

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

The PrecisionAg Institute recently announced the recipients of the 2011 PrecisionAg Awards of Excellence. This is the fifth annual presentation of these awards, designed to celebrate the people and programs that have helped agriculture realize the full benefits of technology to improve agronomy, efficiency, and stewardship in crop production.

This year’s winners are:

Legacy Award – Dr. Nyle Wollenhaupt, Plant Scientist, Minnetonka, MN
As a Plant Scientist, Nyle has always led first with the scientific approach to variable rate application: applying only what is needed and when, while determining those amounts based upon proven science. He has worked with farmers and custom applicators from the earliest concepts of statistical-based soil sampling to development of hardware and software tools. This allowed agronomists to add their local knowledge of agronomic practices and techniques in forms that enhanced agronomic value to their customers through practicing variable rate application of fertilizers, soil amendments and plant protection products. As additional support for using these field techniques, Wollenhaupt has worked closely with yield monitors and precision farming tools that assist in quantifying and substantiating the economic value of precision farming.

Farmer Award – Dan Forgey, Farm Manager, Gettysburg, SD
Dan Forgey is the agronomy manager at Cronin Farms, an 8,500 acre crop and cow-calf operation located in central South Dakota. He has been a no-till expert for 19 years growing spring wheat, winter wheat, corn, sunflowers, soybeans, field peas, and lentils as cash crops and numerous cover crops. He manages land for forage production for a 750 beef cow/calf operation and 12 different rotations over the 8,500 acres. Dan was a founding member of the Upper Midwest Space Consortium at the University of North Dakota. UMAC provides remote sensing (RS) imagery and collaborates with farmers to develop RS agriculture applications. He has been using RS and yield monitor data to create management zones for corn and wheat since 2003. Recently, Dan added real time kinetic (RTK) technology to map field elevations that now includes elevation to delineate zones.

Crop Adviser/Entrepreneur Award – Dave Nerpel, Director of Field Technology, Warden, WA
Dave Nerpel translates industry innovations into services for the Wilbur-Ellis Company. With his understanding of services, web-based record keeping, and telematics, Dave became the foundation of its AgVerdict program. Nerpel has a vision for the future which is coming into play as the industry recognizes that the concept of singular tools on one computer is being trumped by web-based systems that can be accessed simultaneously from multiple locations for system-wide program. Wilbur-Ellis’ AgVerdict is driving a new level of integrated solutions to a variety of needs. From proof of concept to commercial adoption, Dave has contributed to the development of multi-product rate control, software, hardware, the proliferation of high-accuracy GPS applications and steering control, moisture sensors, desktop to web-based geo-spatial records, and telematics.

Agriculture Educator/Researcher Award – Scott Beck, Atlanta, IN
Scott Beck manages and directs the Practical Farm Research facilities that promote agronomic and precision ag technologies and developments. A key goal for Beck and his group is to demonstrate new practices, including precision ag technologies, which allow growers to get a first hand view and understanding on how precision ag technology works. It also helps growers to determine if they will work for their farming operation before any capital investments are made. Scott’s Practical Farm Research program is currently testing the use of weather stations in conjunction with fungicide applications, particularly with soybeans. The program is trying to build a model to determine when it may be the best agronomic time to spray fungicides to achieve optimum performance and profitability.

Farmers Edge, an independent precision agriculture consulting firm, has been ranked 11th by PROFIT: Your Guide to Business Success in their annual ranking of Canada’s Top 200 Fastest-Growing Companies.

Ranking Canada’s fastest-growing companies by five-year revenue growth, the PROFIT 200 profiles the country’s most successful growth companies.

Farmers Edge received similar accolades in 2010, when it was recognized as the number one fastest-growing company in Manitoba. Co-founders Wade Barnes and Curtis MacKinnon were also named Business Development Canada’s Young Entrepreneurs of the Year for Manitoba in 2009.

Farmers Edge offers complete land management solutions, from project development and crop planning to operations and harvest management. Farmers Edge offers advanced agronomy solutions, using a balance of traditional agronomy and new technology to provide value to the grower as well as the environment. To learn more about Farmers Edge, please visit www.FarmersEdge.ca.

She received the World Food Prize in 2003 and this year at the same event Catherine Bertini will receive the prestigious 2011 Borlaug CAST Communication Award from the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology.

Bertini is best known for her work as Executive Director of World Food Program for the United Nations. She used her 2003 World Food Prize proceeds to start the Catherine Bertini Trust Fund for Girls’ Education at the Friends of the World Food Program, and she has been active with many other development programs including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Global Humanitarian Forum.

An award presentation will occur at a breakfast co-hosted by CropLife Foundation and CAST as a side event at the World Food Prize Symposium on October 12, 2011, in Des Moines, Iowa. The Borlaug CAST Communication Award honors the legacies of Nobel Prize winner Dr. Norman Borlaug and Dr. Charles A. Black, the first president of CAST. Catherine Bertini continues the tradition of communicating the importance of science and agriculture in a world dependent on safe, affordable food. As she said, we must all “support the needs of poor farmers throughout the developing world.”

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.

MyWay RTK LLC – a precision farming technologies company that specializes in open-technology RTK (Real Time Kinematic) – introduced industry veteran, Andy Hill, as the new General Manager. Hill comes from Premier Technologies, Inc., bringing with him 20 years industry experience in precision farming and agriculture.

With its territory already blanketing the entire state of Illinois and quickly expanding in states like Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Wisconsin and the Dakotas, MyWay RTK executives sought a proven industry expert to oversee the company’s continued growth.

As General Manager, Hill’s primary role will be facilitating the expansion of the MyWay RTK territory and working with industry representatives to implement the latest MyWay RTK offerings.

The PrecisionAg Award of Excellence program is still accepting nominations for “some of the most important people and programs that have helped agriculture realize the full benefits of technology to improve agronomy, efficiency, and stewardship in crop production.”

The awards are given in the following categories:

• Educator/Researcher Of The Year
• Legacy Award
• Crop Adviser/Entrepreneur Of The Year
• Farmer Of The Year

Award nominations must be submitted by a sponsor — any individual or individuals, company, or organization. Nominees can be working with precision technology anywhere in the world. Nominations can be made electronically or via downloadable entry form. Entries will be reviewed and scored by a three-judge panel based on the criteria indicated on the nomination forms. Winners will be invited to attend a special ceremony in their honor at the InfoAg Conference, July 12-14, 2011. Winners receive a full conference registration and are provided hotel accommodations for one night at the Crowne Plaza.

Deadline for entries is April 30. More information is available from PrecisionAg here.

The Alabama Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is encouraging growers to sign up for the Precision Farming Incentive under the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

According to State Conservationist Dr. William Puckett, the Precision Farming Incentive is designed to encourage the adoption of variable-rate application of nutrients and pesticides and promote the use of GPS-enabled precision agricultural technology and equipment. The goals of the incentive include improving water quality by targeting areas for reduced nutrient and pesticide application, reducing runoff and leaching of pesticides, enhancing soil quality through reduced erosion and soil compaction and energy conservation through accurate and efficient application of crop inputs. The Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES) is partnering on this initiative.

Annually planted cropland in 38 Alabama counties – about half the state – is eligible for the incentive and April 29 is the batching period cutoff date for selecting applications for funding.

I don’t know if there are other states offering this initiative. I did some searching on the national NRCS site and around but Alabama is the other one I could find specifically offering this program, but it does sound like a good way to help especially smaller or disadvantaged farmers to make that initial investment in using technology that helps the environment while saving time and money for producers.

John Deere unveiled a new line of subcompact tractors at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville this week – the 1 Series Subcompact Utility tractors. John Deere Product Manager Kevin Branstetter gave the media a sneak preview, which you can see in the video posted below.

Kevin says there are two models, the 1023E and 1026R, which are customer designed and will accept a full range of implements. One of those is a mid mount mower deck that allows the operator to drive over it and auto connect! Also important is an auxiliary power outlet so you can keep your mobile phone charged while you’re mowing or working. They’ll be available in John Deere dealers soon.

2011 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

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.