Corn contest winners

Dan Peterson of Neola led all Iowa entries in the National Corn Growers Association’s 2013 yield contest with a yield of 314 bushels per acre. Peterson’s entry also led the state’s no-till/strip-till category.

Trumm Farms of Cascade had the highest Iowa conventional tillage yield entry at 302 bushels per acre. Amana Farms Inc. led Iowa irrigated entries with a yield of 276 bushels per acre, and Bentien Farms of Postville had the highest Iowa irrigated no-till/strip-till entry at 268 bushels per acre.

Virginia farmer David Hula set a national contest record with a yield of 454 bushels per acre on an irrigated field. This year’s highest non-irrigated entry was 375 bushels per acre by Kevin Kalb of Dubois, Ind.

Power Farming Show

The 2014 Iowa Power Farming Show will be held Jan. 28-30 at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines. The show is the third-largest indoor farm show in North America, covering 7 acres of floor space in the events center’s three buildings.

Exhibitors representing 750 companies from 29 states and four Canadian provinces will be on hand to display the latest farm equipment and precision agriculture technology. Average attendance for the show is between 18,000 to 23,000 people over three days. Admission cost is $6.

Distillers grain CEO

The Distillers Grains Tech­nol­­ogy Council has named Kurt Rosentrater, an assistant professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering at Iowa State University, to be its executive director and chief executive officer.

Rosentrater joined Iowa State in 2011 after eight years at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he led the agency’s only research program devoted to value-added uses for distillers grains, the primary co-product from corn-based ethanol production. He will continue to teach and conduct research at Iowa State after he assumes his new duties.

Ag negotiator nominated

President Barack Obama last week nominated Darci Vetter as the new chief agricultural negotiator at the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office (USTR).

Vetter, currently the deputy under secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services at the USDA since 2010, will be replacing Ambassador Islam Siddiqui. She has previously serv­ed as an international trade advisor on the Senate Finance Committee and held numerous positions at USTR, including director for agricultural affairs.

Angus honoree

Courtney Younge of Ventura has earned the National Junior Angus Association’s (NJAA) Bronze and Silver awards.

The 17-year-old daughter of Marc and Robin Younge attends Garner-Hayfield/Ventura High School and is a member of the NJAA and the Iowa Junior Angus Association, where she currently serves as treasurer.