Archive for July, 2009

Hemisphere GPS has announced it has expanded its popular line of Outback Guidance eDrive hydraulic steering installation kits.

Outback eDriveTC GPS assisted steering system extends the functionality of the Outback S series, including Outback S, Outback S2, Outback Sts, and Outback S3. Once eDriveTC engages, it uses GPS technology to automatically steer agricultural machines. As a result, it provides more uniform treatments, extends hours of operation while reducing driver fatigue, and is more accurate than otherwise humanly possible. It also features Tilt Compensation (TC), which corrects for the GPS antenna position when driving on slopes in the terrain, essential for precision applications.

The hydraulic steering installation kits allow Outback eDriveTC to be used with a wide variety of agricultural tractors, floaters, sprayers, and combines. Hemisphere GPS has designed customized kits to support 23 new machinery models since the beginning of this year, bringing the number of compatible agricultural more

For many years now, as combine harvesting capacity has increased, farmers have not been able to fully capitalize on that increased capacity due to the crop handling limitations of their headers.

But now, all that has changed with MacDon’s introduction of its new 45′ FD70 FlexDraper — a flex header whose harvesting capacity is greater than most Class 9 combines.

When MacDon first invented the FlexDraper, it represented a true breakthrough in flex header technology. Since then, a number of manufacturers have tried to imitate MacDon’s FlexDraper concept, but none have been able to match the performance or efficiency of MacDon’s patented design. Its unique three-section flex frame, when combined with MacDon’s advanced draper technology, offered balanced floating action plus comparable flex range to competitive sized flex auger headers.

Now, with the release of the 45′ version, farmers will finally be able to push their combines to more

SST Software and Raven Industries have formed a strategic alliance to provide customers with simple, more efficient ways to move and manage information in the precision agriculture market.

The first of these solutions includes integration of SST’s AgX Platform into Raven’s Viper Pro and Envizio Pro field computers. The AgX Platform is a standardized data structure and reference database that enables efficient in-field record keeping and seamless communication between AgX-compliant software and devices.

“We believe this collaboration will bring many efficiencies to our respective customers both in ease-of-use of record keeping and in communicating recommendations and as-applied data between the desktop and the field,” says David Waits, SST president/CEO.

Matt Burkhart, general manager of Applied Technology Division at Raven Industries adds, “By coupling the AgX Platform with our field computers, it makes data management much simpler to perform.”

Additional information can be found at http://www.ravenind.com/ravenCorporate or http://www.sstsoftware.com.

Frontier Equipment expands its lineup of tillage tools with the DH16 Series Disk Harrows and TM41 Series Tandem Disk Harrows to provide customers with durability and dependability in field preparation operations.

“A replacement for the John Deere 637 Rigid Tandem Disk, DH16 Series Disks will deliver years of dependable performance at an affordable price,” says Michael Horrell, Frontier Equipment sales and marketing manager. “The heavy-duty steel blades have 130 pounds of weight per blade, which is ideal for first-pass disk operations through heavy residue. The 22-inch-diameter blades on 9-inch spacing and gang-angle adjustability of these disks provide excellent soil-particle sizing before planting,” adds Horrell.

Customers can equip their disk with either notched or spherical blades with cast spools to best fit their needs. Notched blades provide an aggressive cut and mulch residue while spherical blades slice and mix residue for a smooth finish.

Gang-angle adjustments on DH16 Series more

Syngenta Seed Care has announced the first seed treatment insecticide for small-seeded vegetables has been approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use on leafy vegetables.

This superior new tool offers unparalleled protection against early-season sucking and chewing insects and will be available as a component of the FarMore Technology platform.

The insecticide component of FarMore Technology, also available for use on cucurbit vegetables, delivers targeted protection against early-season insects including aphids, flea beetles, whiteflies (suppression) and leafminers in head, romaine and leaf lettuce only.

In addition to exceptional insect protection, the FarMore Technology platform offers broad-spectrum, systemic and post-emergence disease protection against Fusarium, Pythium and Rhizoctonia. This enhanced insect and disease protection gets crops off to a healthy start and improves plant vigor which leads to more advanced crop development and superior performance, helping boost yield and quality.

“We are excited to offer leafy vegetable growers innovations such as the insecticide component of FarMore Technology,” said Chad Shelton, crop manager, Syngenta Seed Care. “Syngenta Seed Care is at the forefront of discovering and developing game-changing technologies and solutions for the small-seeded vegetable producer that provide excellent return on investment potential.” FarMore Technology is a powerfully effective platform that fosters customized offerings for leafy vegetable growers, delivering top-notch protection and higher yield potential.

FarMore Technology is the first comprehensive and proprietary seed-delivered system that helps maximize vegetable production by enhancing performance and value. This seed protection system provides direct-seeded, small-seeded vegetable growers with consistent performance and improved seed technology to enhance seedling emergence, plant stand establishment, early-season vigor and plant health, and to protect yield potential.

For more information about FarMore Technology, contact your Syngenta Crop Protection or Seed Care sales representative, or ask your local seed supplier for more details.

For more information about Syngenta please go to http://www.syngenta.com.

SureHarvest’s latest product is Farming InSight, a GIS-based decision support and reporting tool providing growers a visual display of farming data from anywhere, at anytime.

“With Farming InSight, we want to provide growers with an analytical tool for visualizing what is happening in the field at any given moment, and provide timely analysis for growers to make quick farming management decisions,” says Robin Wood, SureHarvest Chief Technology Officer.

“Farming InSight integrates farming data with a GIS-map to provide a visually powerful way to analyze what is happening in the field and provide answers to questions on how to best allocate resources. For example, simply by opening a Web browser, a farm manager can see the history of water applied by block, which blocks are stressed, and decide how to allocate water resources according to the quality target of each block — all with one glance,” explains Wood. Farming InSight ranch maps are displayed with collapsible window panes to view and drill down into the source data. The database is queried each time a report is requested in order to display the most recent data.

Farming InSight is a companion product to SureHarvest Farming MIS, resulting from the SureHarvest acquisition of ScanControl last January.

SureHarvest Farming MIS is a database management software tool to schedule, track, analyze and report all farming activities, including scouting, chemical-fertilizer applications, irrigation, yield forecasting, harvest and labor management. Farming InSight reports are generated by retrieving data collected in Farming MIS.

Additional information can be found at http://www.sureharvest.com.

In an effort to make high precision RTK steering affordable to more farmers in today’s difficult market conditions, AutoFarm announces a $4,000 customer rebate on its top-of-the-line A5 RTK steering systems.

The rebate offer runs from through Oct. 31, 2009 at participating AutoFarm dealers.

“As one of the pioneer’s of RTK steering, AutoFarm knows the productivity and efficiency boost growers can receive from this high-accuracy, repeatable hands-free steering. That’s why we are offering this extra value-adding $4,000 customer rebate on any of our four A5 RTK systems,” says Tom Ruschhaupt, VP/General Manager of AutoFarm.

In difficult times, increasing productivity can be the difference between success and failure. North American growers seeking ways to increase their efficiency are finding that RTK steering offers one of the surest returns on investment in the precision technology market.

Purchasers of the AutoFarm system will receive a $4,000 check direct from AutoFarm after their new steering system has been installed on their tractor or other farm vehicle.

For more information on the various A5 RTK systems available with the rebate, contact a participating AutoFarm dealer. Dealers can be found on the Dealer Locator on www.gpsfarm.com or by calling 1-510-933-4849.

Agricultural technology took a significant leap forward on July 21 with the joint announcement from Monsanto Co. and Dow AgroSciences of SmartStax, which will reduce the refuge requirements currently in place for multiple stacked corn insect genes.

Reducing the refuge from 15 to five percent, combined with advanced insect and weed control, is expected to increase corn yields by 5-10 percent compared to current technology, according to company spokesmen.

In field tests, SmartStax has produced 20 percent or more yield increase in direct comparison to triple stack gene technology corn varieties. Company officials note this yield increase will vary from year to year and region to region. The yield increase, they say, will be clearly evident to growers.

SmartStax is a joint venture between Monsanto Company and Dow AgroSciences. It combines eight different genes and different modes of action for above and below ground insect control and weed and grass management for corn.

The new technology was recently granted approval by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Approval puts the new technology on track for availability for U.S. and Canadian farmers for the 2010 cropping season.

Both Dow and Monsanto project for the 2010 cropping season to have SmartStax technology available in all their corn varieties from all maturity groups, ranging from 80-115 day corn.

The new technology includes above ground insect protection against corn earworm, European corn borer, southwestern corn borer, sugar cane borer, fall armyworm, western beat cutworm and black cutworm.

SmartStax includes Dow’s Herculex I insect protection technology and Monsanto’s VT Pro. VT Pro includes two lepidopteran genes currently marketed in Monsanto’s Genuity corn varieties.

Weed control genes for the new technology come from Monsanto’s Roundup Ready 2 and Dow’s Liberty Link products. The combination provides a simpler means of weed and grass control, especially on no-till acres. It also provides an additional option for growers plagued with glyphosate resistant weeds.

Company official contend the new technology will be offered for 3 million to 4 million acres of corn in the first year and has a longer-term potential of 65 million acres in the U.S. and Canada. If 3 million to 4 million acres of corn containing the multi-stacked genes is planted, it would be the largest introduction of corn biotech seed in the history of agriculture.

Jerome Peribere, Dow AgroSciences President and CEO, says the price of the new technology will vary according to its benefit to farmers. In areas where above and below ground corn insect protection is not needed the price may be lower he says.

Peribere says the new technology may produce a renewed interest in cotton production in the Southeast, if it is approved for use on cotton and other crops by the EPA. By reducing the refuge requirements on cotton from 50 to 20 percent, significant yield improvements should be seen by growers, he adds.

Monsanto Company has announced it is expanding its strong seeds and traits portfolio to include wheat. The company has acquired the assets of WestBred, LLC, a Montana-based company that specializes in wheat germplasm, the crop’s seed genetic material.

The investment will bolster the future growth of Monsanto’s seeds and traits platform and allow farmers to benefit from the company’s experience in drought-, disease- and pest-tolerance innovations.

“The U.S. wheat industry has come together to call for new technology investment, and we believe we have game-changing technologies — like our drought-tolerance and improved-yield traits — that can meaningfully address major challenges wheat growers face every season,” said Carl Casale, executive vice-president of global strategy and operations for Monsanto. “Through WestBred, we’ll be able to deliver advances in breeding and biotechnology to deliver a step-change in yield while creating a springboard for new partnerships and collaboration opportunities that create additional value for farmers.”

WestBred, owned indirectly by Barkley Seed, Inc., is a premier private wheat germplasm company in the United States, with germplasm assets in all classes of wheat. WestBred’s existing breeding capabilities and commercial operations will become the centerpiece of Monsanto’s wheat platform. In addition, Monsanto will seek public and private partnerships that can help deliver on the promise of technology improvements in wheat for farmers.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for the grain industry,” said Robby Barkley, president and CEO, Barkley Seed, Inc. “The combined resources of Monsanto and WestBred will support the development of new technology and traits that can benefit many.”

“As WestBred looked at the wheat industry, we saw a need for technology infusion to be competitive with other crops farmers are growing,” said Ron Ueland, president of WestBred. “We believe that linking up with a company like Monsanto with a proven track record as an innovator is the best route to accelerate the development of new technologies.”

Because the $45 million acquisition represents a long-term investment in research and development and breeding, the company does not expect the acquisition to be accretive to earnings until the middle to latter part of the next decade.

Through its technologies, Monsanto sees an opportunity to bolster the sustainability of wheat by helping wheat farmers improve yields while reducing the use of input resources, such as water, land and energy. The transaction will give WestBred access to Monsanto’s technology platforms to provide wheat farmers benefits through both breeding and biotechnology. Researchers will be able to apply Monsanto’s expertise in conventional and marker-assisted breeding tools to develop better-yielding varieties for U.S. farmers using WestBred’s germplasm as a foundation. These seeds will serve as the foundation for the development of new biotechnology traits, which will initially focus on drought tolerance, nitrogen use and higher yield. Biotechnology will be a longer-term prospect, consistent with the company’s 8-to-10 year development cycle. Monsanto will also explore herbicide-tolerance and disease-resistance opportunities to meet wheat farmers’ needs, but the company’s plans do not include further development of the first-generation Roundup Ready trait in wheat.

“The capabilities we’ve built in both breeding and biotechnology for our core crops are highly transferable to wheat, providing a significant jumpstart to our wheat technology platform,” said Casale. “Given the geographies where wheat is grown, it is a crop particularly challenged by the core issues of water availability and fertilizer efficiency. We believe we have the technology tools today to help wheat farmers meaningfully address these challenges and help create a safe, affordable supply of wheat.”

Monsanto also announced that, as part of its investment in the wheat platform, it will form a Wheat Development Advisory Group to help the company as it works to develop and apply new technology for wheat. Initially, the group will be made up of representatives throughout the wheat value chain, who will provide the company feedback on proposed traits and attributes that are needed to improve the productivity and sustainability of wheat production.

Additional details about the announcement can be found at http://www.monsanto.com/wheat.

Processed corn kernels in silage are readily digested, allowing cows to absorb more energy for milk production, say experts at Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business.

Producers can improve starch digestibility in ruminants by adequately processing grains being fed and by thoroughly processing corn kernels during silage harvest.

“More than half of the digested energy in corn silage comes from the starch and sugar; and these come primarily from the corn kernel,” says Fred Owens, Pioneer senior research scientist. “Therefore, it is vital for producers to process corn silage to obtain high starch and energy availability.”

The smaller the kernel particles in corn silage, the more easily they are digested both in the rumen and intestines. Larger particles or whole kernels often pass through the tract undigested.

“Energy from feed becomes available only if the material is digested,” says Owens. “Whole kernels may pass through the digestive system intact. Sacrificing starch digestibility also sacrifices nutritional value and efficiency of production.”

Like starch in high moisture corn grain, starch from corn silage is digested primarily in the rumen. Although starch that is very rapidly digested in the rumen can cause acidosis, over-processing of grain included in the diet, not of the silage, and inadequate forage intake usually are the root causes of acidosis. Through increasing starch availability, kernel processing corn silage can reduce the amount of grain that needs to be fed.

“If a producer sees whole kernels or even half kernels in silage, digestibility of starch from that silage is less than ideal,” says Owens. “Chopping length at harvest has a limited impact on starch digestibility; gap setting on the kernel processing rolls is the primary driver. A gap setting of 1 mm for the processing rolls is considered ideal. To be well digested, processed particles should be less than one-quarter of the size of the kernel.”

Corn silage that has not been kernel processed is another matter. For unprocessed corn silage or when the processor setting has allowed whole kernels to come through, kernel dry matter and kernel hardness can impact starch digestibility. Starch in unprocessed corn silage can have digestibility below 90 percent compared to more than 95 percent for processed silage.

Yet, compared with dry grain, grain in corn silage generally has high starch availability because of the fermentation process. Starch availability also increases during time in the silo. Corn silage several months old has higher feeding value than silage fed within a month after harvest.

“While it is recommended to stay within the suggested moisture bounds during corn silage harvest for ideal fermentation and compaction in storage structures, letting corn silage become a bit more mature certainly increases both starch content and silage yield,” says Owens. “But for more mature silage with drier grain, kernel processing of the silage during harvest becomes absolutely essential.”

Silage hybrids should be selected first for maturity and to match one’s agronomic practices. Then, because hybrids can have a large impact on yield and starch content, selection should be based on yield, tonnage, starch and fiber digestibility.

“If a producer sees whole kernels passing through cattle, kernel processing has failed,” says Owens. “Effectiveness of processing must be monitored during harvest. The only alternatives are reprocessing the silage at feeding time or delaying silage feeding until kernels have been softened by fermentation.”

For more information on starch digestibility or processing, contact your local Pioneer representative. To learn more about how Pioneer can help you plant, grow, harvest, store and feed higher-yielding, better quality forage crops and maximize their value, visit our Web site at http://www.pioneer.com/forages.