Soybeans were introduced on Missouri farms as a hay crop, not an oilseed crop. That started back in the dry years of the 1930s.

This year, cow-herd owners short on feed are asking about baling soybeans that won’t make a bean crop. “Before you do anything, call your crop insurance agent,” says Rob Kallenbach, University of Missouri Extension forage specialist. “Determine the crop-indemnity payment before cutting soybeans for hay.”

Corey Catt
Ellsworth, Wisconsin
Forage Products Manager
Latham Hi-Tech Seeds

Loveland Products, Inc., a provider of high performance crop input products, and Advanced Microbial Solutions, LLC (AMS), an agricultural technology company delivering biochemical solutions for efficient and sustainable plant nutrition, have signed a strategic partnership agreement. The agreement gives Loveland exclusive, worldwide distribution rights to existing AMS technology, as well as access to an integrated pipeline of new product and technology opportunities.

Last week Monsanto Company won a patent infringement trial in the U.S. District Court against DuPont Pioneer, formally Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. The trial centered on DuPont's use of Monsanto's patented Roundup Ready technology.

The federal jury found that DuPont and DuPont Pioneer had willfully infringed Monsanto's patented Roundup Ready technology when it tried to patch the problems with DuPont's own Optimum GAT (OGAT) technology.

Purdue University scientists are working in several areas in the hope that future dry spells don't have the same effects on crops as this year's drought.

Mitch Tuinstra, a professor and Wickersham Chair in agronomy, is studying tropical varieties of corn to understand which genes allow the plants to survive in hot, dry weather. The objective is to find ways to integrate those genes into corn that is bred to produce high yields in the Midwest.

Mycogen Seeds is adding nine new SILAGE-SPECIFIC BMR and TMF corn silage hybrids to its 2013 lineup, including seven with SmartStax trait technology.

Fendt, a worldwide brand of AGCO, has introduced the new Fendt 700 Series tractors.