If the traditional tractor is sidelined on the farm of the future, what might the equipment that has been traditionally hitched behind the tractor look like?
That is only one question in a myriad of questions around the future of farming, and that future is upon us.
The Marketing & Distribution Convention will bring together a panel of experts representing distinct pathways to the autonomous farm, and each will offer his perspective on what this emerging technology means for implement makers.
Meet the panel:
John Anderson is founder and president of JCA Electronics, which he began in his parents’ garage in 2002. He is an engineer with a background in mobile equipment design. JCA collaborates with manufacturers in developing complete control systems, from the physically installed components to software for equipment. This allows manufacturers to customize their requirements.
Cory Beaujot is managing director of marketing, sales and communications at SeedMaster Manufacturing and Dot Technology Corp. He is also an owner with the rest of the Beaujot family. SeedMaster features a line of application equipment from the Nova Cart to seeders that use metered seed flow rate, load cells, and controlled tank distribution. The Dot Power Platform is an autonomous farming apparatus designed to operate in conjunction with a variety of farm implements.
Colin Hurd has founded two agriculture companies. His first company developed the planting product TrackTill. He more recently founded Smart Ag, which offers plug-and-play systems for users in the field who are able to flip a switch for autonomous operation of their current tractors. Smart Ag also provides a software package to monitor and control autonomous grain carts.
Moderating the discussion will be Emily Smith, a customer service and marketing manager at Art’s Way Manufacturing. She is focused on spreading the news about machinery solutions that improve farm operations. Prior to joining Art’s Way, Smith worked with her dad developing farm equipment and entering new markets.
Also on tap are sessions on how to build an influential brand, presented by a speaker who is ranked No. 1 by Forbes, a look at what’s next in digital marketing, the state of the ag economy, and workplace policies on social media use and marijuana use in states where it’s legal.
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The primary purpose of this annual meeting is to foster relationships between manufacturers and marketers and tap into new sales channels. To that end, the schedule allows ample time for one-on-one meetings. It also facilitates introductions.
Members of this Association’s marketing section get free exhibit space in the Marketplace as part of their convention registration. The Marketplace coincides with the Contact Session hosted by the Equipment Marketing & Distribution Association. Both sessions offer manufacturers and marketers opportunities to explore whether their products and sales interests align.
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By Steve Keating
I always enjoy watching marketing people, well, good marketing people, talk about their products. They have a passion for them, and if they are truly good at what they do, it’s safe to say they actually love their products. It’s like their baby!
I’m especially interested in how they talk about their products to salespeople. They want the people selling their product to love it as much as they do. That’s where I’m pretty different from most marketers.
I don’t want salespeople to love their products; I want them to love their customers. Don’t get me wrong, I want salespeople to believe in their products enough to represent them with integrity. I want them to understand the value those products bring to their customers. I need them to understand how their products solve a customer’s issue. I literally want salespeople to feel it’s an honor to sell their products to people who will benefit from them.
But for long-term very successful salespeople, it’s not the product they are most passionate about; it is their customers. More specifically, they are passionate about helping their customers. They care enough for their customers to help them identify their greatest areas of need. Then they work to figure out if they have a product or service that can address that need.
Notice that I didn’t say that they care “about” their customer. Every business and salesperson cares about their customers. What I said was that long-term successful salespeople, and businesses for that matter, care “for” their customers. There is a big difference between caring about and caring for.
Today customer “care” has become something of a buzzword. Many customer service departments are now called customer “Care” departments. For many of those service departments, the name was the only thing that changed.
“Care” is much better as a verb. Some people use it as a noun but successful people, successful salespeople, successful leaders, and successful organizations, use it as a verb.
A verb, for those of you struggling to recall your days in English class, refers to an action. It will always be better to show people and customers that you care than it will be to tell them. I’m betting some of you are telling yourself right now that you care. I’ll bet some of you are reasonably sure other people know you care. I’ll also bet that many of you are hoping people, and your customers, know you care.
Don’t bet, don’t hope and don’t assume. Turn “Care” into a verb today and show someone, a loved one, a special co-worker or even a customer how much you truly care. It’s good business sense and it’s great people skills. So do it today!
Steve Keating has more than 30 years’ experience in
sales and sales management. He speaks and writes on leadership, customer service, business management, and sales growth. Follow his blog, Lead Today, at stevekeating.me.
The Creighton University Rural Mainstreet Index (RMI) for July rose above growth neutral for the month. The monthly survey of bank CEOs in 10 rural states indicated economic growth for July.
The July farm equipment-sales index increased to 37.9 from June’s 35.7.
Borrowing by farmers for July remained strong. The borrowing index slipped to 71.9 from June’s 72.6. Bankers reported that approximately one in ten 2018 farm operating loans were not repaid and were rolled into 2019 loans.
Less than half of the bank CEOs who responded to the survey think the Federal Reserve should reduce short-term interest rates this month.
The overall index fell to 50.2 from 53.2 in June. This is the seventh time in the past eight months that the index has remained above growth neutral. The index ranges between 0 and 100. Fifty represents growth neutral; an index below 50 indicates negative growth.
“Higher agriculture commodity prices and rebuilding from recent floods supported the Rural Mainstreet Index (RMI) for the month. Furthermore, almost nine of 10 bankers reported tariffs and trade skirmishes have had, or will have, a negative impact on their local economy. This is up from eight of 10 recorded last September,” said Ernie Goss, Ph.D., chair of regional economics at Creighton University’s Heider College of Business.
The confidence index, which reflects bankers’ expectations for the economy six months out, slipped to 51.5 from June’s 53.3, indicating a positive yet slightly weakening outlook among bankers.
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The USDA announced Friday the administration has divvied up another $100 million in trade promotion funding to 48 groups. The announcement follows a $200 million round of export promotion aid that was announced in January, bringing the total awarded to $300 million.
The American Soybean Association has been the biggest beneficiary of this part of the trade aid package, having now been awarded more than of $34 million. The U.S. Meat Export Federation has received more than $27 million.
Other groups have scored about $20 million, including Food Export Association of the Midwest USA, Food Export USA Northeast, and the U.S. Grains Council.
Source: Politico
A year after an EF-3 tornado ripped through Vermeer Corporation in Pella, Iowa, CEO Jason Andringa says the company is back and stronger than ever before.
Vermeer announced last week that construction has begun on a 400,000-square foot plant that occupies the space left where Plants 5 and 6 stood before the tornado. The new building will be named Plant 7.
Andringa said the company knew it had everything it needed to rebuild when it learned in the hours after the tornado that no one had been hurt or killed in the storm. Bill Blackorby, vice president of operations, said the destruction provided opportunity to think about present-day campus needs.
“We are not only taking this opportunity to build a new facility but also starting to redefine some of the ways the rest of our legacy plants look as well,” Blackorby said. “This allows us to have the space to spread out a little bit because we have been cramped. You don’t recover in 30 days by just doing the same thing you’ve always done. We did a lot of consolidation throughout the facilities. Our team members have been amazing in this transition but this really allows us to spread out again and prepare for growth in the future.”
Sources: Company, whotv.com
Member since 1998 | vermeer.com
In the wake of the U.S. housing meltdown of the late 2000s, JPMorgan Chase & Co. searched for new ways to expand its loan business beyond the troubled mortgage sector. The nation’s largest bank found enticing new opportunities in the rural Midwest—lending to U.S. farmers who had plenty of income and collateral as prices for grain and farmland surged.
JPMorgan grew its farm-loan portfolio by 76 percent, to $1.1 billion, between 2008 and 2015, according to year-end figures. Other Wall Street players piled into the sector as well.
But now—after years of falling farm income and a U.S.-China trade war—JPMorgan and other Wall Street banks are heading for the exits, according to a Reuters analysis of the farm-loan holdings they reported to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
The agricultural loan portfolios of the nation’s top 30 banks fell by $3.9 billion, to $18.3 billion, between their peak in December 2015 and March 2019, the
analysis shows. That’s a 17.5 percent decline.
Meanwhile, total U.S. farm debt is on track to rise to $427 billion this year, up from an inflation-adjusted $317 billion a decade earlier and approaching levels seen in the 1980s farm crisis, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Surveys show demand for farm credit continues to grow, particularly among Midwest grain and soybean producers, said regulators at the Federal Reserve Banks of Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis and Kansas City.
Chapter 12 federal court filings, a type of bankruptcy protection largely for small farmers, increased from 361 filings in 2014 to 498 in 2018, federal court records show.
The decline in farm lending by the big banks has come despite ongoing growth in the farm-loan portfolios of the wider banking industry and in the government-sponsored Farm Credit System. But overall growth has slowed considerably, which banking experts consider a sign that all lenders are growing more cautious about the sector.
Source: Reuters
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U.S. and Japanese officials are furiously negotiating a limited trade deal focused on agriculture and automotives, hoping for a handshake between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe potentially in late August at the G-7 meeting in France.
Reaching an agreement with Tokyo is a priority for U.S. farm groups, who fear they’re losing ground to competitors like Australia and Canada now that the new 11-nation Pacific trade pact is in effect without the U.S.
“We are going to continue to hemorrhage market share unless we quickly get the same market access our competitors have in Japan,” said David Herring, president of the National Pork Producers Council, during a House Agriculture hearing last week. Trade talks with Japan “can’t move quickly enough, as far as we are concerned.”
Source: Politico
Ag Growth International Inc. has made a minority equity investment of $15 million in Farmobile, Inc. The companies also have entered into a strategic commercial agreement to expand their existing collaboration. AGI has the right to appoint two directors to the Farmobile board of directors as a result of this investment.
Farmobile, headquartered in Leawood, Kan., provides hardware and software services for the real-time collection, organization, analysis, and storage of farm data.
The Farmobile device collects and streams second-by-second geo-tagged agronomic and machine data on every pass of the field from farm equipment of most makes and models. This data is converted into records which can be viewed via desktop computer or mobile device, shared with advisors, and monetized through Farmobile’s digital marketplace.
“Our investment in Farmobile substantially expands our technology platform and integrates automated data collection seamlessly within our IntelliFarms SureTrack farm management and grain exchange platform,” said Tim Close, CEO of AGI.
Source: Yahoo! Finance
U.S. manufacturers are shifting production to countries outside of China as trade tensions between the two countries stretch into a second year.
Companies that make Crocs shoes, Yeti beer coolers, Roomba vacuums and GoPro cameras are producing goods in other countries to avoid U.S. tariffs. Apple Inc. also is considering shifting final assembly of some of its devices out of China to avoid U.S. tariffs.
The moves add up to a reordering of global manufacturing supply chains as U.S. companies prepare for an extended period of uneven trade relations.
Executives at companies moving operations out of China say they expect to keep them that way because of the time and money invested in the moves.
The biggest beneficiaries of the moves have been other countries in Asia where production costs are low, such as Vietnam, India, Taiwan and Malaysia. Many of those countries have recorded sharp increases in exports, although there have been allegations that some of the added traffic came from goods made in China that were routed through those countries without significant alterations to avoid tariffs.
Source: Wall Street Journal
The federal Family and Medical Leave Act often leads to questions: What counts and what doesn’t? How can we make sure we are in compliance? Does it cover cruises?
Wait, what?
Four 911 operators with the Office of Emergency Management for the city of Chicago were caught using their federally mandated sick days to vacation on a Carnival cruise ship in the Caribbean.
“You look, and you have a cluster of employees who are taking FMLA at exactly the same time (that) this cruise is being conducted. That makes you say, ‘What is this about?’” Inspector General Joseph Ferguson told Fox 32 in Chicago.
Investigators checked spending and found that the employees went horseback riding, used jet skis, and joined in a booze cruise while on vacation.
One employee submitted a doctor’s note to justify the days off, but the doctor told investigators he did not know his patient was going on a cruise.
Three employees were fired in February, and a fourth resigned, according to the news report.
Source: Fox 32
A House of Representatives bill introduced last week would direct OSHA to adopt a standard to prevent occupational exposure to excessive heat in both indoor and outdoor environments.
Excessive environmental heat stress killed 783 U.S. workers and seriously injured 69,374 workers from 1992 through 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., one of the lawmakers who introduced the bill, said OSHA does not have a federal standard that requires breaks, shade or water but rather it suggests provisions. Others say it is unnecessary, given that OSHA can issue its own regulations.
“Heat exposure is currently regulated under the general duty clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970,” said Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Ala., ranking member of the subcommittee. “Employers are already required to take steps to protect employees and provide a safe work environment, and that includes preventing workers from being exposed to heat that results in illness.”
In March, the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission sent clear signals that OSHA should adopt a standard to address heat stress risks rather than relying on the general duty clause after vacating a citation issued after the death of a 61-year-old temporary employee from complications of heat stroke.
Source: Business Insurance
Valmont Industries, Inc., a provider of engineered products and services for infrastructure development and irrigation equipment and services, has promoted Renee L. Campbell to vice president of investor relations and corporate communications.
“It’s my pleasure to announce Renee’s promotion,” said Stephen G. Kaniewski, president and CEO of Valmont Industries, Inc. “She has been instrumental in advancing our investor relations and corporate communication strategies across the organization, and we look forward to her continued contribution to the Valmont team.”
Prior to rejoining Valmont in September 2017 as director of investor relations, Campbell was director of corporate treasury at West Corporation and vice president of global cash operations with ACI Worldwide. Prior to that, she spent 20 years with Valmont in various roles of increasing responsibility and leadership.
Member since 1965
Valmont.com
The U.S. Department of Labor has approved John Deere’s new Registered Apprenticeship Program, which the tractor maker is offering dealers in its Agriculture & Turf and Construction & Forestry divisions.
The program will help address a widespread shortage of service technicians, especially in rural areas, by providing dealers with on-the-job and technical training plans.
A representative from Deere said the program will also provide a personal mentor. When participants complete the program, they’ll receive a nationally recognized journeyworker certificate.
Through participation in the apprenticeship program, dealers formally commit to developing additional talent in an earn-while-you-learn program.
Deere dealers will collaborate with local organizations such as K-12 schools, community colleges, labor organizations, economic development groups, foundations, workforce development boards, and the John Deere TECH Program.
Source: Capital Press
Art’s Way Manufacturing Co., Inc., recently released its financial results for the second quarter and fiscal year to date.
Consolidated corporate sales for continuing operations for the three- and six-month periods ended May 31 were $5.75 million and $9.87 million, respectively. The numbers reflect an 8.6 percent improvement for the quarter and a 7.4 percent decrease for the six months.
Member Since 1961
Artsway-mfg.com
Forge Resources Group has acquired Star Manufacturing Company, which uses specialized metal-forming equipment to manufacture customized hot-formed, forged, and heat-treated parts. The company is based in Freeport, Ill. The acquisition was complete July 1.
Star Manufacturing will continue to operate as Star Freeport Company.
The acquisition means FRG now has six manufacturing locations.
“This unification furthers Forge Resources Group’s vision of providing top-tier forgings to all of our clients by adding Star Manufacturing’s breadth of knowledge and deep experience to our roster of capabilities,” FRG said in its announcement.
Star Manufacturing
Member since 1992
starmfg.com
The House passed a bill last week to hike the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. The Democratic-held chamber passed the plan in a 231-199 vote. Six Democrats opposed it; three Republicans supported it.
The measure would gradually hike the U.S. pay floor to $15 by 2025, then index further hikes to median wage growth. It would also phase out lower minimum wage paid to tipped workers.
House Democrats view the legislation as a core piece of their agenda to boost pay and economic growth. As President Donald Trump runs for reelection in 2020, the party argues strong economic growth and a roaring stock market have not done enough to lift the workers who most need relief.
Congress last raised the federal minimum wage to $7.25 per hour about a decade ago. Now, 29 states and Washington, D.C., have higher pay floors than the U.S., while seven states have approved $15 per hour minimum wages.
The bill has little chance of becoming law before next November’s election. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has no plans to bring the legislation up in his chamber. He told Fox Business Network that it would “depress the economy at a time of economic boom,” adding, “we’re not going to be doing that in the Senate.”
The White House also warned this week that Trump would veto the measure if it came to his desk.
In a statement, National Federation of Independent Business President and CEO Juanita Duggan called the bill a “devastating blow to small business.”
Source: CNBC
An increase in mass shootings in the United States has resulted in an increase in demand for active assailant insurance coverage, and insurers are responding to that demand, according to a new report.
Between 2000 and 2017, the nation experienced 250 active shootings, and the trend escalated during those years, acccording to FBI data cited by the A.M. Best Co. Inc. in a special report. From 2000 to 2006, shooting incidents averaged 6.7 a year, jumping to 16.4 a year from 2007 to 2013, and then averaging 22 a year between 2014 and 2017.
“The costs following an active shooter attack can be substantial, and some insureds do not realize that their policies do not cover active shooting incidents,” the report said. “They may believe that this type of attack falls under terrorism coverage, but it does not.”
In addition, a property policy handles the physical damage of an altercation, but general liability sections do not clearly include or exclude active shooter incidents, which is “a concern for companies that are left footing a huge bill after this type of incident,” the report said.
Active assailant policies have been on the market since 2011, but demand has risen since 2016.
Schools, colleges or universities have been the number one setting for active shooter events, followed by retail/wholesale and shopping malls, according to the FBI data.
Source: Business Insurance
