An effort by the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association and Iowa Soybean Association will offer eight chances for farmers attending the 2018 Farm Progress Show to win $500 worth of biodiesel-blended fuel. “Biodiesel adds so much value to Iowa’s farmers,” said Cassidy Walter, IRFA biodiesel lead. “Not only is biodiesel made from the soybean oil, corn oil, and animal fats farmers …
USDA Announces Trade Disruption Relief for Farmers
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will take several actions to assist farmers negatively impacted by recent trade actions. President Trump directed Secretary Perdue to craft a short-term relief strategy to protect agricultural producers while the Administration works on free, fair, and reciprocal trade deals to open more markets in the long run to help American farmers compete globally. Specifically, …
Scott Pruitt Resigns From EPA
Well, here’s news that probably won’t upset too many people I know. I’m actually amazed that this didn’t happen much sooner. Of course this had to happen during a pretty much vacation week for the ZimmComm Team and many, many other folks. Here’s some industry reaction on the announcement. I think you can sum it up that everyone is pretty …
Commodity Classic Releases 2019 Schedule
Less than eight months to go ’til Commodity Classic 2019 – time to start getting prepared! The tentative schedule for the show to be held February 28 through March 2 in Orlando, has been released and includes extended trade show hours, a full slate of educational sessions, and the Main Stage on the trade show floor returns with presentations from …
God Bless America and the American Farmer
Food for thought this Independence Day from former Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack: “America has to understand and appreciate what it has in agriculture. American consumers walk out of the grocery store with still more money in their pocket and their paychecks and their incomes than virtually anybody else in the world. That creates great flexibility in our economy directly …
Increasing Profit Margins for Ethanol
Ethanol production has become a key market for U.S. corn, but margins are often tight. New technology would allow existing ethanol plants to convert a part of their production into making plant-based chemicals that have higher values, with profits that could be passed along to corn growers. “We know that ethanol today is a commodity that has been really pressed …
Planted Acreage Report Surprises
USDA’s planted acreage report out Friday contained some surprising numbers for the trade. The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) estimates 89.6 million acres of soybeans planted in the United States for 2018, down 1 percent from last year, and corn area planted is estimated at 89.1 million acres, also down 1 percent from last year. All cotton planted area for …
Keeping Up With Corn Research
While the content shared during sessions at the 2018 Corn Utilization and Technology Conference was very technical, it was valuable to Mark Sponsler, Executive Director of the Colorado Corn Growers Association. “Behind any market development effort, and at the root or the base of any new technology that represents market demand, there has to be a foundation of solid research,” …
National FFA and AgriNovus Indiana Announce Blue Room
The National FFA Organization and AgriNovus Indiana have joined together to announce the “Blue Room” will debut at the 2018 National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis Oct. 24-27. The Blue Room is the kickoff to Blue 365, an initiative that will bring this same innovation into classrooms and impact more than 650,000 members nationwide. FFA student members are the …
Doggett Interim CEO for NCGA as Novak Joins CropLife America
Jon Doggett has been named interim CEO for the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) starting August 1, taking over for Chris Novak, who becomes president and CEO of CropLife America (CLA) in August. Novak will become just the fifth staff leader of CLA in its 85-year history on August 20. He replaces Jay Vroom, who has been CEO since 1989 …