Farm meetings that used to be dominated by grey hair or no hair now have a healthier proportion of young men and women. And if you think young people aren’t passionate about agriculture, check out Twitter.

Last summer’s drought in the US Midwest reminded us all just how vulnerable harvests and commodity prices can be to adverse or extreme weather events. That, along with crop failures in Russia and, more recently, the UK, has helped to turn prices that once served as ceilings into floors for commodities like wheat and corn in the last two years.

The summit will focus on using in-field crop sensors for variable-rate fertilization to increase nitrogen use efficiency and on farm field information and data management.

The acquisition demonstrates ongoing support of the agricultural market.

Divisional Growth and Industry Prominence Prompts Move to Create Independent Organization

David Franzen, Extension Soil Specialist at North Dakota State University, chats about his research on the use of optical crop sensors. The research looks at the application of nitrogen through the use of sensors to estimate yield and side dressing. Franzen gives some specific examples of his testing in fields and the results of a study in Nebraska and Missouri.

Up until now, Amazone is the only fertilizer spreader manufacturer who, in addition to the usual setting chart and the online FertilizerService, also offers its customers a Settings App for Smartphones.

Valley Irrigation has announced the formation of Valley Water Management (VWM), a new division of the Valmont company Cascade Earth Sciences (CES). Initially, Valley Water Management will enter the North American market with custom engineered pumping stations. Service for these solutions will be provided by Valley dealers.

Leica Geosystems has introduced Virtual Vista, a new web based platform that delivers a flexible data management solution to farmers.

Accurate down pressure control is critical to ensure proper seed depth through fields with varied soil conditions. The 2013 RFX Hydraulic Planter Down Pressure System responds with an exact measure of force in fluctuating soil conditions allowing for exceptional control over the down pressure of a planter row unit.