Held each year in Chicago, the 2018 ASTA CSS and Seed Expo is America’s largest seed industry convention with the latest information on seed treatment, plant breeding innovation, the agricultural economy forecast for 2019, emerging global disease threats and more. This year’s meeting was held December 3-6. Major sponsors at the event include Bayer and BASF. This virtual ag newsroom includes …
ASTA Outlines Seed Industry Priorities for Farm Bill
The 2018 Farm Bill Conference Committee is holding its first public meeting today in Washington and the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) has notified committee members of key provisions important to the seed industry within the legislation. In a recent letter to Conferees, ASTA highlighted priorities within the Conservation, Trade, Research, Horticulture and Crop Insurance titles. In the Trade title, …
Inari Aims to Transform Agriculture
A new plant breeding technology company called Inari Agriculture is being introduced today with the mission to transform agriculture and its impact on society and the environment by developing a more personalized plant breeding approach. Inari is a Flagship Pioneering company headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., which started in early 2016 and has since recruited more than 80 leading research scientists …
Timac Agro USA Continues to Gain Popularity in Managing Early Season Stress
Fertiactyl®ST is a seed treatment formulated for stronger emergence Timac Agro USA, a provider of crop nutritional solutions, introduces Fertiactyl® ST, a liquid seed treatment suitable for any crop started from seed. This formulation was developed from Timac Agro’s Fertiactyl® GZ to help farmers battle environmental stress during spring planting. It is the newest addition to an extensive portfolio developed …
ASTA Elects 2018-19 Officer Team
The American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) is pleased to announce its 2018-19 officer team, officially elected during the ASTA Policy & Leadership Development Conference in Washington, D.C. The members of the 2018-19 ASTA officer team are: • Chair – Jerry Flint, Corteva Agriscience™ • First Vice Chair – Wayne Gale, Stokes Seeds • Second Vice Chair — John Latham, Latham …
Midwest Seed Genetics Expansion and Growth Continues
Midwest Seed Genetics continues its growth with four senior managers joining the team. They are: Todd Claussen as Director Sales Agronomy; Chandra Edwards as Senior Operations Manager; Wayne Hoener as Soybean Product Manager; and Rodd Whitney as Senior Recruiting Manager. “The addition of these highly skilled individuals underscores our resolve in building a new, high quality, high performance hybrid corn …
ASTA Pleased With USDA Decision on Gene Edited Plants
The American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) is pleased with the clarification made by USDA last week regarding oversight of plants produced through innovative new breeding techniques, including gene editing. “The (USDA) announcement really clarifies the practice they’ve had had ongoing for the last couple of years in that products created through gene editing don’t need to go through pre-market, regulatory …
2017 ASTA CSS and Seed Expo
Held each year in Chicago, CSS 2017 & Seed Expo is America’s largest seed industry convention with the latest information on seed treatment, plant breeding innovation, the agricultural economy forecast for 2018, emerging global disease threats and more. This virtual ag newsroom, courtesy of ASTA, includes links to photos and audio content available free of charge for digital or print …
Verdesian Life Sciences Introduces FlexConnect™
At the 2017 Farm Progress Show, Verdesian Life Sciences introduced FlexConnect™, the first closed transfer system for soybean inoculants. Combined with a mixing port, FlexConnect enables applicators to handle and mix inoculants of any volume straight from the packaging, without transferring to a separate tank. This saves applicators time and money by minimizing the waste normally associated with inoculant mixing. …
Legendary Seedsman Don Funk re-launches Midwest Seed Genetics
Don Funk, founder of Channel Bio Corp, is leading a team of entrepreneurs to launch Midwest Seed Genetics across the Corn Belt for the 2017/2018 growing season. In 2001, Funk purchased Midwest, a small, sleepy seed company, and turned it into a regional powerhouse. He is re-acquiring the brand for the purpose of providing farmers meaningful choice in the dynamic …
House Ag Hearing on Specialty Crop Innovations
The House Agriculture Committee heard testimony Wednesday on technology and innovation in specialty crops as input toward the making of the 2018 farm bill. Among those who testified was American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) President & CEO Andy LaVigne, who stressed that Farm Bill research programs and policies based on sound science are critical to the development of new technologies …
2017 ASTA Annual Convention
The 134th annual meeting of the American Seed Trade Association was held June 21-24 in Minneapolis, MN with the theme “Voyage of Better Seed.” Founded in 1883, the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) is one of the oldest trade organizations in the United States with a membership of over 700 companies involved in seed production and distribution, plant breeding, and …
ASTA Annual Convention to Focus on Policy
The American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) Annual Convention June 21-24 in Minneapolis will focus on science and policy issues related to the development and free movement of quality seed worldwide, according to ASTA president and CEO Andy LaVigne. Special sessions and tours planned for the week include an Opening General Session panel on consumer food trends and a tour of …
Fluency Agent Advanced Helps Farmers CARE
The Bayer CARE initiative has been encouraging growers to be good stewards of the land for five years and now Bayer is making that goal more attainable with Fluency Agent Advanced, which was introduced by the company at Commodity Classic. In this interview, Bayer Seed Growth product manager Melissa Chu and Ron Reichert, application technology manager for Bayer Seed Growth, …
ASTA Weighs in on New Phytosanitary Measures
Last week the seed industry announced good news in the form of the International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPM), a world wide attempt to put seed regulations on the same page. Ric Dunkle, Senior Director of Seed Health and Trade for the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) was at the International Plant Protection Convention in Korea when the standards were …