The establishment of Nichino Mexico allows the company to enhance its focus on the crop protection business in Mexico by providing improved service and accelerating the introduction of novel technologies into the market. This endeavor poses a more intimate relationship with partners, distributors, and growers, using local resources to enhance its supply, technical support, and promotional capabilities.

Jeffrey Johnson, President of Nichino America, says:

“Nichino America is excited about the establishment of Nichino Mexico as it will allow our organization to better serve the Mexican market at a deeper level. The product portfolio provided by Nichino Mexico will provide agricultural suppliers, distributors, and growers in Mexico with excellent crop protection options to control some of their most troublesome pests. Additionally, the establishment of this subsidiary strengthens the position of our parent company, Nihon Nohyaku, as a global agrochemical company,”

adds Johnson.

Source: Nichino America

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There will be three unique application crop tour plots located in the US, including a cotton plot in Tifton, Georgia and two soybean plots in the Midwest – one in Farmer City, Illinois and another in Vincent, Iowa.  The application crop tour is geared to gather data and insights that will help educate growers and commercial applicators on the impact of key variables in the application process. 

Four overarching protocols will be administered and reviewed during the 2020 growing season:

• Boom Height – How varied boom heights affect spray efficacy, consistency and accuracy
• Boom Contamination – Contamination and the risk of crop damage
• Boom Priming – The risks and impacts associated with boom priming, weed resistance and crop damage
• Nozzle Selection and Droplet Size – How proper selection of nozzles for speed and droplet size impact the application.

David Webster, application director at AGCO, is excited about the idea of demonstrating these impacts.

“If you think about the significant input costs a grower has with herbicide, pesticide and fungicide, it is critically important that the job gets done with a high degree of quality.  It’s really all about efficacy, and that’s what we’re looking to showcase with these plots.”

Webster said.

The application team will utilize several methodologies to measure the impact of the variables, and ultimately, yield results.  Over the next several months, AGCO will be releasing digital content related to the tours, including video, photos, and discussion related to the application protocols and the results they’re seeing in the field.

Source: AGCO Corporation

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Dino’s beginnings in Salinas

The first season in Salinas introduced local farmers to Dino – our bed straddling robot used for weeding salad crops. Thanks to our partners’ trust (such as Top Flavor Farm, Bonipak and Church Brothers Farms), we were able to weed many acres on their farms and gather precious feedback. We were thus able to identify Dino’s few limitations, and correct them immediately. Several of my French colleagues regularly travelled to California and Arizona to conduct other tests and adapt our robot according to the needs expressed by American farms.  Indeed, there are notable differences between European and American practices – which led us to modify certain aspects of the machine.

Precision adjustments

We started by adjusting Dino’s guiding system over the crop beds. Its itinerary is now perfectly straight and accurate, in compliance with the map it is instructed to follow.   A second team came to improve the tool’s camera guidance – which was another significant advancement for Dino. The third and final team went to Yuma in Arizona, to implement the active tool developed at the end of last year. Other aspects were also adjusted, making the mechanics more reliable, ensuring more compact batteries, making it possible to use new weeding tools, and lastly providing operators with a reliable and secure remote control.

Last season, Dino therefore operated across dozens of hectares of farmland! This year, we have scheduled hundreds more thanks to the arrival of other Dino machines throughout the USA.

Let’s start a new season!

All these improvements mean we now have fully autonomous robots, and we can consider operating several machines at the same time within the same plot of land.

After a very dry winter and a very wet month of March (that came as a huge relief to us all!), we are now ready to launch the next weeding season with our privileged partners – who stand by us as we pursue Dino’s and Naïo’s life on American land.

Source: Naio Technologies

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“We created this series as an expression of our support for this community. In addition to offering valuable information and insights in the context of this COVID challenge, we hope to deliver inspiration — we have an opportunity in this moment to, together, shape the future of the farm and food chain.”

said Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech.

The series consists of presentations from Lyons and three-panel discussions with experts including David McWilliams, economist, and professor at Trinity College Dublin; Jessica Adelman, CEO of ESG Results and a former executive at Kroger; Jack Bobo, futurist and CEO of Futurity; and Ryan Quarles, Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture.

To access the Forging the Future of the Farm & Food Chain series on-demand, visit alltech.com/futurefarm. That special COVID-19 discussion series includes:

Cultivating Optimism & Opportunity: Leadership in Times of Crisis

How can leaders bring certainty in a time of uncertainty? How can they help their teams think proactively in order to discover opportunity and drive innovation? 

From the Frontlines of Food Production

This panel discussion takes a first-hand look at the experiences of those working within the food/feed sector in the midst of COVID-19.

The Post-COVID Consumer: A Remaking of the Market?

This panel discussion features an investigation into the lasting impact COVID-19 could have on consumers and the global economy.

Keep Calm & Carry On: The Essential Business of Agriculture

Experts investigate how the current crisis is reshaping the agriculture sector. 

Planet of Plenty in a Post-COVID World

In the midst of this COVID crisis, the global agriculture community has carried on its essential work — rising with the sun no matter the circumstance.

This COVID-19 special series reflects the insightful, thought-provoking content that will be available as part of the Alltech ONE Virtual Experience beginning on May 18, 2020.

The virtual program will include live-streamed keynote presentations and on-demand video content from some of the world’s leading industry experts as they address the challenges and opportunities facing agriculture today.  

Source: ALLTECH

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