Monsanto’s Annual Shareholder Meeting
Today was the annual shareholder meeting for Monsanto Company. I’ve been to several of these before, both here at Monsanto and for other companies. I can remember the first one I went to… it really didn’t match my expectations. I’m not sure what I expected – maybe something like the excitement in “Mr Deeds.” Although [...]
An Incredible Learning Experience With Farm Bureau
For the last few years, I have had an opportunity to go to the annual meeting of the Farm Bureau. A group of us have also enjoyed being able to share the experience in real-time (thanks to Twitter) and with a bit of reflection on the AFBF meeting blog. This year, I wrote 1-2 blog [...]
Getting to Know the Farm Bureau
This week as millions of Americans went back to work after the New Year‘s holiday, thousands of men and women who kept working straight through the holidays began packing and finalizing schedules to have friends and family care for crops and livestock. Many of these farmers worked through the holidays but find the American Farm [...]
VIDEO BLOG: Strategies to Insure Farmer Productivity with Corn Rootworm Control
We generally look at three components for farmers to succeed with Monsanto products – agronomics, breeding and biotechnology. We work closely with agronomists at the state level across the country and have focal regions for each crop. And we share this information in a variety of ways, including our Technology Use Guide as we provide [...]
Wagner Farms Focuses on Flexibility & the Future
Seeing the presentation farmer & rancher Val Wagner gave at the #140conf Small Town, some people naturally wondered about her farm. She took a little time to give me an overview of Wagner Farms (Monango, ND) after our presentations were completed. I wanted to hear how she and Mark ran their farm. And I wondered [...]
Why would a farmer or rancher create a blog?
The title of this post is a question I’ve been asked several times. It seems people don’t understand what would lead a farmer to set up and maintain a blog. That sort of writing and content creation used to be the sort of thing communications professionals laid claim to. The process seemed intimidating to others. [...]
World Food Prize Dialogue Focuses on Next Generation
With World Food Day on the horizon, hundreds of people gathered in Des Moines, Iowa for the World Food Prize Symposium. Started by Nobel Laureate, Norman Borlaug in 1986, the World Food Prize recognizes individuals for their efforts to increase food production globally through innovation in agriculture. The 2011 symposium, called the “Borlaug Dialogue,” placed focus on [...]
What Can Farmers & Small Towns Gain Through Social Media?
More than 100 million people are said to be using Twitter. With all the buzz around the service – challenges about how many followers people have, tweeted photos appearing on the big screen in major stadiums, and every business having a twitter icon on their homepage – one would have to wonder what would small [...]
Who are you most afraid of – Darth Vader, Ninjas or Monsanto employees?
It happens. You create images of people and places you’ve never seen or met. And with some of the things that get said about Monsanto, it wouldn’t surprise me if some people said they were more afraid of Monsanto employees than they are of Darth Vader or ninjas…
Who should speak up for farmers?
As farmers look at the way the world works, its easy to think things need to change. Tennessee farmer Johnny Dodson says farmers need to speak up & be involved.
Farmers Learning from Each Other
I happened to be in one of the fields Johnny Dodson farms near Four Points, Tennessee with soybean farmers from the Midwest who came down south to see the issues on weed resistance that Johnny and his neighbors are facing.
What’s a Farmer to Do When Weed Resistance Threatens the Farm?
In a previous post, we learned a bit about Johnny Dodson and his Halls, Tennessee farm. In that post, things at the farm may have seemed idyllic. As he talked, the birds chirped and all seemed right with the world. But reality is, Johnny is in the epicenter of weed resistance. Having grown 30 crops [...]
On the Farm with Tennessee Farmer Johnny Dodson
This trip was long overdue. I’ve been lucky enough to talk to Halls, Tennessee farmer Johnny Dodson several times before – I vividly remember some Midwestern soybean farmers borrowing a cotton boll to show Johnny he wasn’t the only cotton person in Kansas City for a meeting and other chances to talk with him about [...]
Impacts Flooding and Levee Breaks Have on Farms
Last May, Tennessee had flash-flooding conditions which caused some levees to break (see post and video here). We had a chance to visit Bob Walker in Somerville at the time to see how his cotton, corn and soybean farm would recuperate. Yesterday, Bob and I talked about some of the issues farmers will be facing [...]
Rain Delay Provides Weed Management Training Time
With the wet weather that’s crossing much of the middle of the country, farmers may be finding themselves in the field less than they would like. The progress that was underway has been stopped much like a rain delay in a favorite team’s baseball game. So, time normally spent on field work and planting is [...]
Biotech and Weed Resistance Learnings
This time of year is when farmers are making final decisions on cropping, seed varieties/hybrids, crop marketing and other things. With such important decisions in the balance, now is the time when farmers are making sure they have all the information available to make good decisions. Recently I had the chance to talk to the [...]
What Does a Family Farmer Know?
The following blog post was submitted to us by Glen Groth, a family farmer in Ridgeway, Minnesota who has dairy cows and raises corn & soybeans. Glen has become active on social media (@GrothFarms on Twitter) and has seen various conversations that make him want to speak up about the things he knows to be [...]
Farmers Signing Technology Use Agreements
Over the last few days I’ve seen people tweeting about Monsanto’s Technology / Stewardship Agreement (MTSA). Tweets send you to a video of two people discussing the agreement and now there is a commentary on Huffington Post. There seems to be a lot of shock that a liability statement is included in the document, and [...]
New Pathogen Claim Spreads Like Wildfire
In the last few days, claims of a new pathogen or disease “…that appears to significantly impact the health of plants, animals, and probably human beings” has garnered attention on the internet. The claim has been put forward by Dr. Don Huber, a retired professor from Purdue. In the time since we learned of this, [...]
“Monsanto is Evil.” What?
“Monsanto is evil.” I’ve seen headlines like that, the latest one for a story about the readers of a website catering to people interested in natural news, health and information. The readers had voted Monsanto as “Most Evil Corporation of the Year.” Given the readers and the site’s coverage of GM food, even the editor [...]
Biotech in the Land of Oz
If you look at TV Guide any time during the week you can see several nationally syndicated TV programs talking about some of the popular topics in American culture. Food and home are two of the biggest themes so it’s no surprise that agricultural biotechnology and the connections to food would be among the topics [...]
Getting Excited with Scientists
Last week I was among some of the leading agricultural scientists in the world and I must say I was in awe. Maybe a little bit starstruck even. The annual meeting of the tri societies (a combination of the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America and the Soil Science Society of [...]
Video: What is Center Pivot Irrigation?
Not sure how many times I’ve had people ask me about these “big spoke things” going across fields, otherwise known as a center pivot and and used in center pivot irrigation. They are definitely easier to understand if a center pivot is running. They are intriguing I admit, and with a span that covers hundreds [...]
Video: Managing Glyphosate Resistant Pigweed – A Success Story
Field days are part of the rural landscape. There are various sorts throughout the summer and for me, they are just getting started. A field day is an opportunity to get a number of people together in one place to see how things are done on a research plot or farm. My first field day [...]
