TIME named Land O’Lakes President and CEO Beth Ford to the 2024 TIME100, its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Land O’Lakes operates in all 50 states and more than 60 countries and Ford has served as President and CEO since 2018. Ford, who has held senior positions in seven companies in six industries, leads not only by delivering financial performance, but also by addressing the important global issues and structural changes that can improve areas directly impacted by food and agriculture. During her tenure, Land O’Lakes has focused on its members, the technology th ..read more

Nestlé Purina is investing in farmer adoption of regenerative agriculture practices across the company’s corn and soy supply chains through a new partnership with Cargill, one of the largest ingredient and agricultural solutions companies in the U.S. This work will support soil health and reduce the carbon footprint for Purina dry pet food products across North America, contributing to a more sustainable future for people and their pets. Get ready for an extraordinary journey through Arkansas’s vibrant agricultural landscape at the 17th Annual Conservation in Action Tour, taking place on Jun ..read more

Florida-based specialty products company Custom Agronomics has acquired North Carolina-based BioTek Ag to expand its focus on nutrient use efficiency products. Custom Agronomics is a formulator and manufacturer of private-label liquid plant nutrition, nutrient use efficiency, and other specialty products for the agriculture, turf, and ornamental markets. BioTek Ag has more than three decades of experience helping farmers improve and protect crop yields with specialized nutrients, nitrogen stabilizers, and other specialty products that improve soil biology and enhance the effectiveness of crop ..read more

With corn planting underway now across the Midwest, there are likely quite a few Golden Harvest hybrids going in the ground after a successful 2023. “Golden Harvest has made a lot of innovation over the past 50 years,” said Rex Gray, Golden Harvest Corn Product Manager, at the recent Commodity Classic. “Over the past two years we’ve brought 39 new products to the market.” Gray said they are excited to launch Enogen DuracadeViptera this year. “That’s something farmers have told us they wanted and needed for a some time,” he said. Learn more in this interview about the 50 year legacy of Golden H ..read more

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was found in a South Dakota dairy herd last week, becoming the eighth state with HPAI-infected dairy cows. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s HPAI website now shows a total of 26 detections, in Texas (11), New Mexico (6), Kansas (3), Michigan (2), Idaho (1), Ohio (1), North Carolina (1), and South Dakota (1). The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) expressed disappointment in the final rule released to update the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Child ..read more

The Food and Agriculture – Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Food and Ag-ISAC) announced the launch of a new University Partnership Program to drive improved collaboration between the industry and leading universities on a range of security issues impacting America’s food and agriculture sector. The partnership program has launched with four founding collaborators: Iowa State University of Science and Technology, the University of Nebraska, Purdue University and PARI, and Virginia Tech. The Plant Based Products Council (PBPC) just concluded its second annual conference, PBPC2024: Circ ..read more

Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast. It’s almost time for the 2024 Agri-Marketing Conference that is put on by the National Agri-Marketing Association. ZimmComm will be there to celebrate our 20th anniversary in our Connection Point booth. We’ve got more to come on this when we get to the conference later this month. In this episode I’m talking with Lori Kruger, Signal Theory, and Chair for the Agri-Marketing Conference committee. We’ll do a preview of what you’ll find. In case you haven’t registered it’s easy to go to the NAMA website and get it done. Listen to the episode here:ZimmCast 729 - P ..read more

The U.S. Department of Agriculture published the second edition of Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Agriculture and Forestry: Methods for Entity Scale Inventory. The report provides farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners with the methods and tools needed to assess the greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint of their operations. The 2024 report improves upon the methods outlined in the original 2014 report to increase their accuracy, provides new methods that allow users to better quantify the GHG benefits of additional management practices, and introduces several improvements to make the report ..read more

Senate Agriculture Committee member Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is calling on Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Democrats to put the farm bill on the Senate agenda. In a letter to Schumer, Grassley pointed out that of the 17 items Schumer outlined for Senate action, the Farm Bill was missing. Grassley is urging the Majority Leader to hold true to his commitment to seek compromise with Republicans by passing a five-year Farm Bill reauthorization this year. “A one-year extension of the 2018 Farm Bill is going to expire on September 30. The Senate must work to pass a bipartisan Farm Bill ..read more

USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) announced this week that it is canceling the July Cattle report as well as all County Estimates for Crops and Livestock beginning with the 2024 production year. “The decision to discontinue these surveys and reports was not made lightly, but was necessary, given appropriated budget levels,” NASS said in its official statement. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) criticized the decision because the reports “provide critical data and the decision to end them is completely misguided.” “It is disingenuous for the same agency which ..read more