Purdue University is launching ISOBlue, an open-source project that aims to provide farmers with easy access to agriculture data. Aiming to free farmers from vendor-controlled data, the product provides information, via smartphone, by the industry-standard ISOBUS port located on tractors, harvesters and equipment.

Senior, California Polytechnic State University Editorial Intern with Progressive Dairyman Based in Jerome, Idaho

It’s ironic that what I planned to write about this issue I misspelled in a headline that appeared on this same page last issue. Management is not easy to get right – on a dairy or in any business. I offer some tips and some of the lessons learned using our own story about how we added an extra e and n to the spelling of what should have been a simple word.

The Beef Checkoff Program was established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill. The checkoff assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. States retain up to 50 cents on the dollar and forward the other 50 cents per head to the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board, which administers the national checkoff program, subject to USDA approval.

In the last week, I have had three discussions about the future of professional development for farm owners and leaders. In each discussion, I have suggested that a part of their professional development in supervision, strategy and leadership should be outside of agriculture. Why would I make that suggestion?

I’m not a big cycling guy, so I never really followed the Tour de France. But I love to see people overcome adversity and achieve greatness. So, like many people, I admired Lance Armstrong’s courage to beat cancer, and I paid attention to his cycling career. Year after year, I wanted Armstrong to get the yellow jersey and win the Tour.