What's 'Appening?! Great Ag Apps for Kids

The holidays are coming, the cold may be blowing in soon and kids will be out of school - so now is the time to get some kid-friendly agricultural apps on your mobile devices for your kids (and yourself!). We've compiled a list of great, educational and fun apps that are geared towards kids, but help people of all ages understand agriculture. They promote ag literacy as well as coordination, small motor and other learning skills for young children. (If you don't have kids, look at the bottom of this post for a link to some other great ag apps!)

• GrowIt-app from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Do you know where hot dogs come from? Milk? Hamburgers? Eggs? Many will say the grocery store. This app gives students lessons on how agriculture produces the things they love to eat.
• GrowItKnowIt A game about where our food comes from. 
• Kernel Quest The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) and AdFarm published the 2014 World of Corn Comic book Captain Cornelius: Corn Day Celebration, which celebrates corn and educates youngsters on corn’s important role in our everyday communities.
• Fooducate With this app you can scan barcodes of food and then it tells you how healthy something is.
• Agriculture Encyclopedia This app is full of “farm terms” and explains them to the viewer. It’s for all age groups to better understand modern farming practices.
• Serious Quiz 1.0 This app asks trivia questions including agriculture questions!
• iLiveMath Farm Fresh This app was awarded the best math education app of last year, this app teaches kids math while using farm references ex. 1 ear of corn + 3 ears of corn = 4 ears of corn, there are three different skill levels so it can be used at any age.
• Old McDonald Had a Farm This app has a sing along to the “Old McDonald” song but it also has animal games probably would be geared toward younger students.
• Bizzy Bear On the Farm Kids get to help Bizzy Bear pick apples, collect eggs, feed piglets and baby chicks, make the horse gallop, and navigate the tractor. It is designed for kindergarten and first graders.
• Agriculture Glossary Agriculture is a science and are through supplying humans by raising the products of soil and the associated industries. The glossary is an easy to use application with comprehensive list of 1300+ terms related to agriculture.
• FarmGenius Enter with FarmGenius into the world of agriculture precision by New Holland. Cultivate your fields, earn coins, and buy precision land management system that will increase speed and performance of your agriculture machinery. You can choose to farm Corn, wheat or grapes. 3 levels of difficulty. For upper elementary students.
• Farmers Guardian Logo Quiz Combines everyday farming logos with some of the more challenging logos, How well do you know your farm logos?
• Tractor Memo Enjoy the world’s first REAL tractor game for kids! Each hit is rewarded with a genuine tractor movie. Ages 2 to 12 years.
• Farmorama Select your favorite tractor, based on true models and get ready for the big Farmorama tractor race. Easy to drive and challenging to win. As in the real world, correct speed is the key for success. Five different tracks will challenge you with steep hills, jumps, drive through barns, stones and mud holes. Pick fuel cans during your ride and get bonus points.
• Preschool Games- Farm Animals by Photo Touch Photo Touch is an exciting educational game that helps your child rapidly learn words by sight, sound, and touch. The interface is so easy to use that even a 9 month old baby will delight in using this app.
• Farm Up! HD The 1930s brought crisis to the agricultural state of Cloverfield. Beginning with a small enterprise, earn coins and keep developing your farm: grow various types of fruit and veggies, breed domestic animals, produce dairy and canned products, and even try extracting minerals, producing planks and supplying folks with all kinds of other materials. Do enough, and you will be able to help the neighboring cities too- numerous families are waiting for your help. Never mind how difficult things are now, times of abundance and good years lie ahead of you. 
• Farm Animal Puzzles Farm animal puzzles is a great puzzle game for kids, aimed at ages 1-8. Has a total of 36 different farm puzzles.
• Farming Simulator 2012 Discover a wide, agricultural scenery with fields, roads, your farm as well as a small village. Cultivate your fields with various three dimensional vehicles found in your generous fleet- modeled after original machines and vehicles by prestigious manufacturers. Take a seat at the wheel of authentic farm machines and start your own agricultural enterprise: plow and cultivate your fields, choose the seeds of your field crops out of three plants (corn, canola, and wheat) and fertilize them to accelerate their growth. Sell the harvest and invest it into new equipment.

Are you a farmer or rancher? Here is a great list of {10 pages!} of ag apps great for farmers and ranchers.

Bushels & Bytes: The Data Driven Farm

“I’m hooked on a drug of information and productivity,” said Kip Tom, a seventh-generation family farmer, who harvests the staples of modern agriculture: seed corn, feed corn, soybeans and data, in a recent New York Times article. When Kip isn't found in the field, you can find him sitting in an office filled with computer screens and a whiteboard covered with schematics and plans for his farm’s computer network.

This is not a new image for farmers today. Farmers use technology to make advances in producing more food for a growing world. Through the use of technology, each farmer is able to feed 155 people today, compared to 1940, when one farmer could feed only 19 people.

Farmers use technologies such as motorized equipment, modified housing for animals and biotechnology, which allow for improvement in agriculture. Better technology has allowed farmers to feed more people and requires fewer people to work on farms to feed their families.

So with all of this new technology, comes more data, or "Big Data" as the term as been coined. How do farmers use it? Tom Farms has genetically modified crops, cloud-computing systems and possibly soon drones, if Mr. Tom does not go with lasers on low-orbit satellites. All of these items will be sending their data for analysis on the cloud-computing systems that Tom Farms rented from Monsanto and other companies.

“Farmers still think tech means physical augmentation — more horsepower, more fertilizer,” Mr. Tom said. “They don’t see that technology now is about multiplying information.” With corn prices at almost half the level they have been in the past few years, “my growth is going to come from farmers who don’t embrace technology.”

From a self-driving John Deere combine, Ernie Burbrink, a Tom Farms employee, sorts real-time data about moisture, yields and net bushels per acre on his iPad, sending important information by wireless modem to distant cages of computer servers that begin analyzing the data for next season’s planting.

“It used to be, if you could turn a wrench you’d be good at farming,” Mr. Burbrink said. “Now you need to know screen navigation, and pinpointing what data should go where so people can plan and predict. You need to be in tune with other people: seed consultants, agronomists, the equipment folks.”

Continue reading the NYT article...

Harvested Biotech Crops Top 4 Billion Acres

When the sixteen farmers representing agriculture around the globe gather in Des Moines next week for the Global Farmer Roundtable, they can celebrate a milestone. Since 1996 until now, over 4 billion acres of biotech crops will have been harvested.

That’s billion with a B.

Four billion acres is 1.5 times the size of Europe. It’s nearly as big as South America.

Ross Korves, economic and trade policy analyst with Truth About Trade and Technology: “The calculation starts with 1996 commercial production of biotech crops. Each February we benchmark back to the ISAAA (International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications) December 31 number of acres planted for the year. Much of the world does not have a harvested number like the U.S., but we’re making an educated guess to paint a simple picture. The counters (for planted acres and harvested acres) run 365 days per year. They come alive in the spring and fall and peak out at 25-30 million acres per week in the northern hemisphere and 15-20 million in the southern hemisphere.”

What’s the bottom line lesson here?

Bill Horan, chairman of Truth About Trade and Technology: “The B word for billion acres of biotech crops without any reported issues in the food chain means just one thing. There are a lot of voices out there critical of biotechnology, spinning their precautionary tales. Four billion acres of biotech crops have filled a lot of stomachs, and biotech is one of the answers for meeting agriculture’s goal to feed 9 billion people by the year 2050. I think it’s time we lay all of these scary food myths to rest, like the passing of the boogeyman, once Halloween is over. Once we’re able to do that, we could focus on the work ahead of us.”

Water: Making every drop count

Nebraska’s diverse landscape progresses from lush, fertile crop ground in the east to the temperate Sandhills in the west. This change in scenery is attributed in large part to differences in the amount of rainfall and the water available to grow a variety of crops. Thanks to innovative agricultural practices, Nebraska corn and soybean farmers are making every drop of water count.

Since rainfall varies so much across the state, many farmers depend on irrigation during the summer months to help supplement moisture deficiencies. To help put the variation into perspective, the amount of rainfall changes more from Omaha to Scottsbluff than it does from Washington D.C. to Omaha.

Water for Food

Three quarters of the planet is covered by water; but less than one percent of the water on earth is available for human use. Water is critically important to farmers and ranchers. In fact, 70 percent of the water available to humans worldwide is used to produce food. Nebraska farmers irrigate nearly 8.5 million acres, more than any other state in the country. And new tools are allowing farmers to use water more efficiently, ensuring clean water for future generations.

“We know that many consumers have questions about the water it takes to grow crops like corn and soybeans,” said Drew Guiney, consumer relations specialist for the Nebraska Soybean Board. “We want people to know that farmers need water, but they’re also dedicated to continuing to improve their practices to ensure a clean, plentiful supply for generations to come.”

 

Smart Water

The purpose of irrigation is to supplement rainfall as needed. Many farmers are now adopting technologies that allow them to use less water. By pulling local weather data and installing water sensors in their fields, farmers can know not only when it’s time to irrigate, but also exactly how much water should be applied. Sustainable technologies like these are helping farmers produce more grain while using fewer resources and helping to keep the water supply clean and plentiful for you and your family.

Some of these technologies include the SoyWater and CornWater Irrigation Management Tools released by University of Nebraska-Lincoln. These programs are online, real-time decision support tools that help farmers determine when to irrigate fields in Nebraska. Both programs were developed with the help of the Nebraska Soybean Board and the Nebraska Corn Board.

To make irrigation recommendations, these tools evaluate several situations in the real-time, such as available soil water at different soil depths and possible water stress based on up-to-date weather data. Other factors include user-input crop information (including date of planting, hybrid maturity, plant population), and basic soil properties (including soil texture, soil water status at planting time, soil rooting depth, and soil surface residue coverage rate).

“Just as farmers adopted the use of pivots and sub-surface drip versus flood irrigation to increase efficiencies, they are now taking the next steps in conservation tillage, water mark sensors, and online decision support tools to continue in their quest to maximize the amount of yield per drop”, stated Kelly Brunkhorst, executive director for the Nebraska Corn Board.  “Farmers see this adoption of technology as just a step in their sustainability of producing corn and soybeans for food, feed, fuel and fiber.”

VIDEO: Kernels of Truth–What are GMOs?

There’s a little acronym floating around: G-M-O.

It stands for Genetically Modified Organism. A big name for a common practice in crop production.

What is is? There are several terms associated with it: GM, biotechnology, genetic engineering, hybrids, Bt.  These terms are used interchangeably with the practice of incorporating favorable traits into the DNA of plants like corn and soybeans.

In fact, you can get a quick glimpse into GMOs explained in easy terms in this Kernels of Truth – What are GMOs? video by Nebraska Corn intern, Matt Perlinger. Enjoy and please pass it on!

Knee High By the Fourth of July

Happy 4th of July from the Nebraska Corn Board

With Independence Day quickly approaching everyone is eager to be out working in their corn field's right? Okay so maybe not everyone is interested in being out in the fields and thanks to technology farmers are able to spend less time out in the field and more time celebrating with their families. I would like to take a moment and recognize some of the differences that technology has made for farmers.

Knee high by the Fourth of July was the traditional way of knowing if your corn is on track to successful yields. Thanks to biotechnology though this isn't the most accurate saying anymore. Biotechnology in corn seeds has improved plants efficiency and we are seeing record yields. This means that in an average year most biotech corn fields will be taller than your knee by the Fourth of July. It has been hard to see these improvements the past two years with the drought and then unseasonable weather this year that all but halted planting in most regions but hopefully we will be back to normal here soon.

Another improvement due to technology is irrigation needs. As much as we don't want to lay irrigation pipe or turn on those pivots here in Nebraska we have needed to take those steps again this year. Luckily for farmers biotechnology seeds are more drought resistant and get more benefit from every drop of water than ever before. In addition to the seed technology we have also developed irrigation technology that makes it easier to manage how much water you are applying to your field. Farmers now have the option of putting a chip in their fields that tells them how wet the soil is. This is making it possible for modern farmers to better conserve water which helps both the environment and the farmer's checkbook. Other technological advancements have made it possible for farmers to receive a text message on their phone telling them if something has gone wrong with their pivot. All this reduces the amount of time needed each day for checking your fields to make sure the pivot is still running properly. Finally one of the best advancements in my mind is the ability of pivots to shut off at a certain point by themselves. This has been made possible thanks to GPS. Being a teenager growing up on a row crop operation it was my job to run from pivot to pivot checking their position and reporting their statuses back to my father. Thanks to our new GPS pivots I am now able to take a nap instead, or in most cases I am free to do a different chore.

Photo from a field near Holdrege, NE

Needless to say there is more than one way that technology will be benefiting farmers this Fourth of July. We would love to see your #kneehighbythefourthofjuly photos, you can post them to our Facebook or Twitter pages. We look forward to seeing how tall your corn is this Fourth of July!

The unpopular facts about GMOs

What is the big fuss about GMO crops, anyway?

Are GMOs good or bad? That question just doesn’t make sense.

Direct genetic modification is a technology, not a product. 

Think of the difference between a typewriter and a computer. They’re two different technologies that can be used to write a book. But it makes not sense to ask, “Are books written on computers good or bad?”

Using genetic modification let’s us “copy and paste” a specific gene that makes it better.

How does this work in corn? To make Bt corn, researchers flipped one gene from a naturally occurring soil bacteria and pasted it in traditional corn to make caterpillars stop eating it. Simple. We get a corn that is unchanged and we get a better corn.

Check out more with this inFact video with Brian Dunning:

Nebraska Agriculture & You magazine

You will see a new magazine circulating around the state starting during National Ag Week in venues such as doctors and dentist offices that focuses on Nebraska agriculture.

Nebraska Agriculture & You features a story about Nebraska Corn Board director, Mark Jagels and his use of technology on his family farm with the story, Farming in the Digital Age.

Check out www.NEagriculture.com for more on the magazine.

Snow Dancing

Nebraska was hit with its second snow storm of the winter the end of January causing snow days for many and traffic delays for all. While the snow brought an inconvenience, Nebraska is still many inches of precipitation behind for most years. Leading to the looming question, how will the continued lack of snow and rain impact the ongoing drought?

With record lows for precipitation and highs for temperatures, 2012 took the record for both in the 12-year U.S. Drought Monitor data history. Nebraska was the epicenter of the drought this summer, and drought conditions continue to worsen in the beginning of 2013. As you can see in the maps below, at this time last year only a small section of moderate drought conditions existed in Nebraska. However, this year the entire state is in exceptional or extreme drought.

Before/after effects of the drought in one year:

Nebraska’s family farmers are using innovation to ensure they meet growing global demand, while protecting and preserving precious natural recourses we all depend upon, such as water, by using:

• Conservation tillage – Many farmers don’t use plows any more, as new tillage practices focus on disturbing the soil as little as possible. This cuts back on the number of trips across the field saving fuel and reducing soil compaction. Also, leaving residue such as cornstalks in the field conserves soil moisture and reduces the amount of fertilizer, nutrient and irrigation required to grow a healthy crop. Field residue also prevents soil run off when snow melts.
• Advanced seed technology – Seed companies have led the charge to develop seed that is resistant to drought
• Irrigation research – Through soil moisture monitoring, Nebraska farmers are working to cut back on the water they use without affecting yields
• Precision technology – Modern tractors and machinery are equipped with GPS to eliminate overlaps in planting and fertilizer application. Satellite mapping ensures farmers apply just the right amount of nutrients in the right place.

Energy required to produce a bushel of corn over the past three decades has decreased by 37%

While the technology farmers are using helps them to be more environmentally responsible, efficient, and accurate, they still need certain levels of moisture to produce a yield required by a growing and hungry population.

So, here’s to rain dancing…or snow dancing!

*Blog post reposted from the Farm Meets Fork blog by Nebraska Farm Bureau

H2 Oh?

Evapotranspiration (ET) gauges, like the one shown 

here, let farmers know how much water corn plants 

have taken up from the soil and evaporated

into the air. Watermark sensors keep track of how

much water is available in the soil. Combined, these 

two technologies give an accurate picture of water

 use and reduces irrigation amounts, saving both water 

and the energy dollars to pump it.

A network of sensors lets farmer Mark Jagels of Davenport know when he should water his corn crop and when it makes sense to wait a few days.

This is key information because Jagels wants to use the least amount of water possible but still produce a good crop. When needed, supplemental water in most cases is delivered through a pivot – a large sprinkler. It’s pretty common in Nebraska to see pivots providing water to corn during the summer. Nationally, though, only 11 percent of the corn crop receives supplemental water from irrigation. The rest relies only on rain - which is a much needed commodity right now during this widespread drought.

Because Nebraska is unique in terms of irrigating corn, researchers have done a lot of work to help farmers best manage this natural resource. That includes the network of sensors managed by the University of Nebraska that Jagels and other farmers follow online.

Some farmers, including Jagels, also install their own sensors so they can manage water use more specifically for their location. “The investment is worth it,” he said, “because the cost of buying sensors is easily offset by leaving pivots shut down for longer periods of time.”

The sensors used by Jagels and in the university network are watermark sensors and evapotranspiration, or ET, gauges. The university has some great websites and information that assist in this easy to use technology. Look here, here or here for various articles on ET gauges and crop water use.

Watermark sensors are buried in the soil at different depths and tell farmers how much moisture is available to their crop. ET gauges tell farmers how much water their corn crop is transpiring. Combined, these tools tell farmers how much water the plants are using and when they may need to irrigate.

Research using these tools has shown farmers how to reduce their water use up to 25 percent while still achieving good yields. “When it’s hot and sunny you want to believe it is drier than it is, that the crop is using more water,” Jagels said. “We’ve learned that isn’t always the case. The technology available today lets us know it’s okay to wait a few more days before irrigating, and that saves money, energy and water.

Clean, straight-as-an-arrow rows of corn

By Don Hutchens, executive director of the Nebraska Corn Board

Take a drive on Interstate-80 across Nebraska and you will see the effects of modern technology on the farm; clean, straight-as-an-arrow rows of corn.

Most of the corn planted in Nebraska has been genetically engineered to be resistant to specific insects. Seed technology in the ground now allows plants to protect themselves from damaging pests, while also supporting conservation tillage -- and that impacts everything from water use to runoff. Corn has also been planted using state of the art guidance systems or more specifically, GPS-based precision technology, that strategically places seed, chemicals and fertilizer just where it belongs – and in exactly the right amounts.

All of this is a beautiful sight to see as I drive up the road. It also is the backbone of the Nebraska economy which feeds the livestock and ethanol industry. Corn farmers are doing this by growing more food, feed and fuel with less – less fertilizer, less chemicals, less water, less land and less of an impact on the environment. All of this is apparent as I drive up the road.

Also remember to glance up to the road once and awhile.

Nebraska farmer visits third graders in Austin, Texas

A few months ago, a third grade class in Austin, Texas, took a tour of Mark Jagels farm in Davenport, Nebraska. The third graders didn't drive or fly up to Nebraska. They just took advantage of modern communication tools, with Jagels and his wife, Suzanne, walking the students around the farm with a Motorola Xoom tablet and iGoogle video.

Then they did a video chat so students could ask questions. (Read more about the experience here.) 

This month, Mark Jagels, who is on the Nebraska Corn Board, and Suzanne traveled to Austin to see the third graders in person. (Their son, Brett, just happens to be the students' teacher...hence the connection!)


They took yellow and white corn and soybeans along for the students to examine up close, and explained the different products that come from each, noting how each product benefits humans, livestock and people in other countries. "We also explained that when we sell the corn and soybeans, this is how we made money," Mark Jagels said.

They also played videos that showed some of the things that happen on their farm.

He said the students were very interested in livestock and wanted to know the size of baby calves and cows, how long a cow is pregnant and how old the calf is when you wean it. The curious kids also wondered how cows know which calf is there, if cows get married, if they ever get sick and why they receive and eartag and brand.

Plus...How long do you feed them in the feedlot? What kind of food do they eat? How much water and how many pounds of food do they consume each day?

"It was really exciting to see them ask questions and learn about where their food comes from," Mark Jagels said. "Thanks to our son and daughter-in-law (who also teaches at the school) for stressing the importance of agriculture, their farming background and for giving my wife and I the opportunity to spread the story of agriculture some 1,110 miles from our farm!"

What's with this 'Factory Farm' business?

Almost all of us have heard the words “Factory Farming” before. It gets used a lot these days by groups who oppose modern agriculture, and unfortunately these words have now trickled down to the consumer. Groups that oppose modern agriculture use these words to portray agriculture as an industry that is full of pollutants, and an industry that doesn’t care about the land or the animals and is only concerned about profits.

These groups also believe that technology doesn’t belong in agriculture. They suggest that modern agriculture today is like a factory and that farming should return to how it was back in the 1930s, where everything was done by hand.

While their argument can be interesting, it is far from the truth. How can I say that one may ask? First, when I think of the word factory, I think of large buildings with smoke stacks and a gloomy sky. However, I have never seen this on a farm nor does it come to my mind when I think of farms. When I think of farming, I think of the family farmers who take care of both the land and their animals, and who work hard to feed a growing population. I think of farmers who are using new technologies, such as GM crops, to help conserve our resources for future generations. I think of the farmers who use housing to protect their animals from brutal weather conditions and also from predators. What I see farmers doing is trying to be innovative in the way food is produced for the growing world population. I mean, isn’t America all about innovation?

So the word use of “Factory Farms” is nonsense in my opinion from the fact that factory farms don’t exist. What do exist are farms that are family owned. These farmers do care for the land and their animals.  Not only are these farmers caring for their land and animals, but they care about their local communities. They are involved in local organizations and many of them make donations to support local projects. So next time you hear or see the words “factory farming”, think about what I just said, and if factory farming means being innovative in smart ways, then it must be a compliment instead of criticism.

Farmers aren't Hick

A couple weeks ago I was on twitter and saw a tweet that talked about how farmers are hick. Now, most of us know what hick means but here is what dictionary.com has it as: “an unsophisticated, boorish, and provincial person; rube”. After I saw that tweet I was immediately offended from the fact that I come from a farming background and that someday I hope that farming is my main occupation.

Yet, I know I am not a hick and the farmers I know aren’t hick either. However, after thinking on this comment a little more, I soon realized that a lot of Americans still have this perception that farmers are still living in the 30’s when it was just a horse and a plow. It’s amazing to see this gap between the farmer and the consumer continue to grow and the consumer not seeing the advances that are taking place in Ag!

I really do believe if the consumer was able to experience a farmer’s life, their opinion about farmers and agriculture would dramatically change in a good way. Almost everyone uses technology these days, but some use more advanced versions. When I say advanced versions, I am talking about using GPS to automatically steer a tractor or farmers being able to turn an irrigation system on by the click of a mouse. How many people in America can say they get to do that in their daily life? Not too many. It truly is amazing to see the technology that farmers are using compared to what they used 10 years ago. These days’ farmers can even take their computers out to the field with them to log in data from crops or diagnose problems with their equipment. A lot of farmers are even buying tablets, such as iPads, to take out to the field with them so that they can keep an eye on the markets and get the latest weather updates.

Now, what I just describe sure doesn’t sound like something a “hick” would do or use. To me it sounds more like highly sophisticated people that are trying to feed a growing population while also making sure the food grown is safe and nutritious. So the next time someone says farmers are hick or calls them another demeaning name, be sure to ask them how many hicks they know that use GPS, computers, iPads, smart phones, email, and etc. Most likely they won’t know of any and you can tell them that you just described the American farmer.

When you hear 'technology', think of a corn farmer

What is the first thing you think of when you hear the word, “technology”?
When I hear “technology”, I think of machines, progression, and science. Even though I love agriculture, it doesn’t come to my mind first when I hear “technology”. But you know what is great about machines, progression and science – agriculture uses all of them, especially corn farming.

Machines – How do we get our crops in and out of the fields? Tractors, planters, combines, harvesters, grain carts – all forms of machines. Because of modern technology in agriculture, farmers in America have machines that help them be the most productive in the world, growing 20% more corn per acre than any other country! Farmers also are using GPS-based precision technology to reduce overlaps in the field and to precisely place fertilizer and pesticides exactly where they need to be – and in exactly the right amounts.

Progression – Forward thinking, movement, development. These are all words that describe farmers. Farmers in Nebraska are being progressive by Sustaining Innovation - an unwavering commitment to doing a better job in every row, on every acre, on every farm, every season. It’s how family corn farmers in Nebraska and the nation are ensuring the long-term viability of their industry and our natural resources.

Science – Science can be a scary word. But in reality – science in corn farming is just plain cool. Seed companies are using science to produce better seed genetics, which in turn allows farmers to grow more corn per acre. Did you know in Nebraska in 1900, the average bushel per acre was 26 and that this past year, the average was 160? That is some cool science. Not only are farmers growing more corn on fewer acres, they are doing so with less fertilizer, less chemicals, less water, and less of an impact on the environment.

Nebraska’s corn farmers – and their fellow corn farmers across the U.S. – continue to make significant advancements that have a direct impact on the sustainability of corn production and the natural, environmental and social systems that are connected to it. So the next time you hear the word “technology”, think of a corn farmer.

Wordless Wednesday: 2011 Fall Harvest

Have you seen our 2011 fall harvest videos? If not, they are definitely worth watching! Step into the combine or tractor and hear what our corn farmers have to say about this year's corn crop and how technology has transformed the way they get their crops out of the field!














To see more of our videos about Nebraska corn farmers and the corn industry, make sure to visit our Youtube channel at The Cob Squad!

Virtual classroom: Texas third graders visit rural Nebraska

By Mark Jagels, District 2 farmer-director on Nebraska Corn Board

I had an interesting call from our middle son, Brett, early last week. Brett and his wife, Kristin, recently moved to Austin, Texas, where he is teaching third grade at St. Paul's Lutheran school.  He asked me if I would help him with his lesson on Friday, showing his third graders where their food came from, with a virtual classroom on our farm.
 
My wife and I thought, “Wow! What a terrific way for us here in Nebraska to help educate some kids over 1,000 miles away about the crops we grow and the livestock we raise.” With the technology we have today, even for a person that struggles with all the advances of technology, what an opportunity this was. 

Brett helped me get our Motorola Xoom tablet ready for a virtual classroom tour of our farm. Friday morning came and I got online via iGoogle video. I walked around our farm, showed them equipment we use, started a tractor, walked in a corn field, showed them ears of corn, shelled a couple of ears of corn, both yellow and white, showed them our shop, grain bins, cows, calves and the feed they eat, all live via the video on the Xoom. 

Mark shared live images with the virtual classroom, like
equipment, cattle, corn, grains bins and baby calves.

I described some of the different jobs we do on the farm and how we do them, trying to put it in terms they could relate to.

Some examples were: one acre is about the size of a football field; one bushel of corn weighs the same as some of the 56-pound third graders; if 200 of the third graders stood on a football field, that is what our corn yields per acre; it would take 21,000 third graders to fill one of our grain bins, and many more examples of thinking like a third grader. I then went in the house and got on Skype to visit with them about questions they had.  Wow, was that an eye opening experience!

They asked a lot of great questions about the equipment, crops, livestock and general questions about rural life in Nebraska. For example, “how many ears of corn are on one stalk”, “how many stalks in an acre”, “how many stalks in an average size field, how many hours a day do you work”, “what do you do with the corn”, “what items in the grocery store come from your farm”, “how much does a baby calf weigh”, “what does a calf weigh when you take it off the cow”, “what does a cow weigh”, “do you process cows on the farm”, “how many cows and bulls do you have”, “do cows and calves get sick”, “what do you do if they get sick”, “what do you do besides farm”, “is farming hard”, “do you like Nebraska football” (is there another team?). 

They even asked some questions about the reproductive side of livestock that I had a tough time putting in terms for a third grader. I was very impressed with the quality of questions they asked and the interest they showed in what we do and how we do it. Brett asked if we could do this again throughout the year, showing harvest, field work, winter, calving, planting, irrigating and more – to help educate his third graders on the importance of livestock and grain production.

Wow, virtual classrooms showing Nebraska agriculture, both crops and livestock to third graders in Austin, Texas. Thanks Brett, for keeping in touch with Nebraska!

Growing more with less, someone else sharing your story

It’s always great when we see others out there sharing the importance of agriculture, and in this instance – helping to tell our Sustaining Innovation message that Nebraska farmers are growing more corn using less resources!

Recently the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a report on fertilizer use and prices for corn across the US. This report is the result of the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) jointly conducted in 2010 by the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) and USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). ARMS data used to be collected annually for corn, but has been collected less frequently since 2001.The last ARMS data for corn prior to 2010 was in 2005. This information, coupled with data on crop production in Nebraska from the Nebraska State Agricultural Statistic Service, provides an opportunity to explore how efficiently Nebraska farmers are using nitrogen (N) fertilizer for corn production.

Figure 1 illustrates the average N rate for corn in Nebraska as reported in ARMS data. This illustrates that the average rate of N fertilizer has remained basically unchanged for the past 40 years – around 140 lb N/acre. At the same time, corn production has seen a steady, linear increase in Nebraska over the same period (Figure 2).



When these two datasets are combined, the resulting trend in nitrogen use efficiency, expressed as pounds of N fertilizer applied to produce a bushel of corn, is illustrated in Figure 3.


In 2010, this value was 0.84 lb fertilizer N per bushel of corn. This compares to an average value of 1.5 to 1.6 lb fertilizer N per bushel of corn in the 1970s – about twice the N fertilizer currently used per bushel. This data does not indicate that a bushel of corn requires only 0.84 lb N. There are other sources of N besides fertilizer available to the crop – mineralized soil organic matter, residual nitrate from previous fertilization, legume and manure credits, for example – which contribute to the total N need for a corn crop of 1.1 – 1.2 lb N/bu. This data does indicate that Nebraska farmers are using nitrogen fertilizer much more efficiently now than they were 30-40 years ago.
 
They accomplish this using a wide range of practices – accounting for all sources of N available to the crop besides N fertilizer, as indicated above, as well as efficiency-boosting practices such as sidedressing, fertigation, use of nitrification and urease inhibitors, use of slow release formulations, setting realistic yield goals, and efficient irrigation management.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) guidelines on fertilizer use are available in the publication Fertilizer Suggestions for Corn (EC 117). Specific recommendations for fields using soil test information and cropping history can be calculated using the web resource SoilTest Nebraska (soiltest.unl.edu). Since 2005, UNL has provided economic adjustments to N fertilizer recommendations based on the relationship of crop and fertilizer N prices.


Figure 4 illustrates trends in the ratio of corn to N price over the past 50 years. The peak in this relationship occurred in the 1970’s, when fertilizer was quite inexpensive compared to the price of corn. In 2010, even though fertilizer prices seemed high, the value of the crop – on average – was even higher, resulting in a price ratio of 17:1. To avoid either deficient or excessive rates of N application, the price ratio range in UNL N recommendations for corn is confined between 4:1 and 10:1. To optimize profit, producers will want to use economic factors specific to their own situation; in general 2011 N rates should have been slightly higher than in recent years.

References: Richard B. Ferguson, UNL Extension Soils Specialist and UNL CropWatch

Observations from China

By Dennis Gengenbach, Nebraska Corn Board District 6 Director and Vice Chair

I had the opportunity to travel with the U.S. Grains Council for the 2011 Spring Corn Tour to Northeast China, where we surveyed the corn growing conditions and studied the Chinese government policies that affect acreage, marketing and demand. We met with farmers, traders and provincial officials in the northeastern China provinces of Heilongjiang and Jilin, both major corn producing areas.

My first and foremost impression of Chinese agriculture is that their farmers are focused and work very hard. The Chinese people were also impressively friendly and appeared to be extremely health conscious. Obesity in China appeared far less of a problem than what we are experiencing in the United States. The fertile Chinese soil is high quality and would be envied by many United States corn growers. I would hope that in the future we would be able to share information and technology with our farming counterparts in China. Together we will both be better able to feed the world.

It is my opinion that with a few adjustments in their planting techniques, the Chinese farmers would be able to improve their yields and lifestyles. Changes in planting depth, plant spacing and fertilization would possibly help improve corn production. It would be an incredible experience for American and Chinese farmers to further exchange information to improve and work their soils.

The 2011 Chinese Spring Corn Tour was an incredible experience for me. It was very well organized and helped us appreciate our trading partners in China. This partnership will support us in the future as we exchange ideas and information with farmers and the agriculture industry in China. The U.S. Grains Council and the Foreign Ag Service should be proud of this fine accomplishment. “People” make the difference and both organizations are comprised of exemplary individuals.

To see more pictures from the 2011 Spring Corn Tour, check out the U.S. Grains Council’s online album.

Does Ethanol Really Have a Future? Why yes it does!

By Lance Atwater, NCB Intern

Today, everyone is feeling the squeeze at the pump. What happened to the good ole days when gas was only $0.31 a gallon? Unfortunately, we aren’t seeing those 1960 prices anymore, and probably never will. Today, according to AAA, the average price for a gallon of regular gas is $3.75. That is a dollar more than what we were paying for last year, which was $2.71.

Now, it seems like what we currently are paying for is a lot, and it is, but did you know we could actually be paying for a lot higher gas prices if it wasn’t for ethanol? A study done by economists at Iowa State University and the University of Wisconsin shows that ethanol actually reduces gas prices by $0.89 a gallon. That is almost an entire dollars worth! When calculating this out, gas prices would actually be $4.64 if it was not blended with ethanol! If you think we have it bad now, just imagine if you saw this price at the gas pump!

We can clearly tell what it would be like if gas wasn’t blended with ethanol, but lately there has been people and groups saying ethanol has no future. One of the hot topics is whether ethanol should receive subsidies or not. There is no doubt our country needs to make cuts to reduce its debt, but cutting out subsidies for alternative energies may not be the best solution.

When looking at the amount of subsidies that the ethanol industry receives compared to the oil industry, ethanol receives very little. The oil industry receives between $130-280 billion while the ethanol industry only receives $17 billion. Why should we cut ethanol subsidies when, 1) it receives a much smaller amount of subsidies compared to the oil industry, and 2) it actually reduces the cost of gas at the local pump. We sure don’t see oil subsidies reducing the price of gas! Not only does ethanol reduce gas prices, but it also helps reduce the amount of emissions that vehicles give off.

Now, when talking about support, we aren’t just thinking about subsidies because honestly subsidies are not what keeps the ethanol industry going. This industry needs support from the auto manufacturers who make the flex fuel vehicles and most of all the industry needs support from the consumer. When consumers invest in ethanol, they are not only investing in this industry but they are also investing in our country’s economy. However, that is not always the case with oil. When we invest in oil, our money ends up going to economies overseas.

Ethanol has a future, and don’t let anyone tell you different. With ethanol we aren’t just reducing emissions and the costs of energy, but we are also insuring that our country will someday be energy independent.

Check out other recent blog posts about ethanol:
Ethanol plays key role in fuel supply, helps lower prices
Saudi prince wants cheaper oil so you stay hooked and forget about ethanol
Finding the solutions to feed, fuel the world
A myth is still a myth when it comes to corn and ethanol, food and fuel