20 Mar 2007

INFOAG 2007 SET FOR JULY 10-12 IN SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS


INFOAG 2007 SET FOR JULY 10-12 IN SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS

March 1, 2007 – Norcross, Georgia, U.S.A. – The popular national/international version of the In­formation Agriculture Conference, InfoAg 2007, is scheduled for July 10, 11, and 12. The location is the Crowne Plaza in Springfield, Illinois, the same as for InfoAg 2005.

InfoAg 2007 is organized by the Foundation for Agronomic Research (FAR) in cooperation with the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI). CropLife Media Group is also a partner in the Information Agriculture Conference, particularly with managing the exhibit area.

“The Information Agriculture Conference has come a long way since the first conference in 1995,” notes FAR President Dr. Harold Reetz, of Monticello, Illinois. “Many of the precision ag technologies that were considered to be in early development stages then are becoming generally adopted by farmers, dealers, and industry today. Other innovations have come to the market more quickly than anyone expected.”

Opportunities and effects of shifting corn production to meet the grain and biomass etha­nol market demands is a hot topic in agricultural circles today, and will be part of the discussion at InfoAg 2007. The detailed records and natural resource (soil, water, etc.) inventories that are part of farm databases, and the other technologies of precision ag might be useful in decisions on shift­ing crop acreage. Many farmers and their advisers are also dealing with questions regarding how to manage continuous corn, or how to manage corn where they have not grown it before. What are the opportunities for precision tools and information technologies to help?

Another important question regards the issues of productivity: “How can we use these tech­nologies to increase corn yields on our best fields and thus reduce the need to convert acreage from other crops, or from CRP?” That is the longer-term solution that will be addressed at the conference.

Conservation of natural resources will also be a major theme at InfoAg 2007. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will bring a large soil survey exhibit that was originally prepared for the 2006 World Congress of Soil Science in Philadelphia. The program will also feature a series of USDA-NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant projects that FAR and IPNI are coordinat­ing to develop fertilizer best management practices guides for six major cropping systems in the U.S. Some of the farmer participants and NRCS personnel will discuss their involvement in these projects.

A pre-conference tour and demonstration program will again be a feature of InfoAg 2007. Several other meetings are being coordinated around InfoAg 2007. Potential attendees and exhibitors for the Information Agriculture Conference are encouraged to plan ahead now in making arrange­ments. For more information about InfoAg 2007, please visit the website: >www.infoag.org<, or contact Dr. Harold Reetz: phone 217-762-2074, e-mail: hreetz@farmresearch.com.

– 30 –

InfoAg 2007.pdf