In March, the North American Equipment Dealers Association (NAEDA) released its 2013 Dealer-Manufacturer Relations Survey and inaugural Dealer’s Choice awards.

Vermeer Corporation received the top overall rating in this survey and was awarded “Dealer’s Choice” in the Ag/Shortline Manufacturer category.

Western public medical professionals say that valley fever, an often misdiagnosed and potentially deadly disease, is a growing concern as droughts and windy conditions increase the dust that carries the illness. The illness is most prevalent in dry, windy conditions and is common in some regions of the U.S., Mexico and South America.

Founder of H&S Manufacturing Co., Inc., Lauri Raymond “Ray” Heikenen, 89, of Junction City, Wisconsin, passed away on May 10, 2013, at Ministry St. Joseph’s Hospital in Marshfield, Wisconsin.

U.S. agricultural banks increased farm and ranch lending by 13.9 percent, or $10 billion, in 2012 and held $81.8 billion at the end of the year, according to the American Bankers Association’s annual Farm Bank Performance Report.

Gov. Jack Dalrymple and Mayor Mike Brown have announced plans to build a new, world class nitrogen fertilizer plant near Grand Forks, North Dakota. The natural gas powered plant is projected to produce about 750,000 tons of fertilizer annually. The natural gas will be piped to the plant via a pipeline from a local source.  

AGCO has begun further expansion of its Jackson, Minnesota, manufacturing center. During the next three years, AGCO will invest an estimated $42 million in infrastructure, increasing production capacity and efficiency in order to help meet growing demand for the tractors and application equipment built there.

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) published in the April 22 Federal Register a petition received from the Monsanto Company and Forage Genetics International seeking nonregulated status for a low-lignin alfalfa.

One of the coolest springs on records has delayed most producers across the Midwest from getting in the field. Typically, 42 percent of the corn in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois is planted by the first week in May. This year, only 5 percent of the planting had occurred by May 3.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a farmer's replanting of harvested Roundup Ready© soybeans violates Monsanto Company's patent rights.  The ruling leaves in place a former court award of $84,456 against farmer Vernon Bowman for planting and harvesting the soybeans, which he had purchased as commodity beans from a local grain elevator or saved from his prior harvests.

Relying on the theory of "patent exhaustion," Bowman argued that Monsanto's patent rights exhausted after the first sale of the seed and did not apply to later uses or sales.