AT CLOSING NEWS.

Chr. Hansen BioSystems, Milwaukee, was awarded Frost & Sullivan's 2001 Market Engineering Award for Marketing Strategy. The award is presented to the company demonstrating excellence in marketing strategy design and implementation within its industry.

The Kansas-based Beef Marketing Group (BMG) has selected eMerge Interactive to implement an individual-animal tracking program with potentially far-reaching implications for the U.S. cattle industry. The BMG program will use eMerge's recently introduced CattleLog individual-animal data-collection and reporting system, which integrates such tools as EIDs, handheld computers and proprietary software to capture individual animal data in the field or at chute-side. Once the information has been collected and uploaded into the information-management database, the participants will be able to produce a wide range of Web-based reports to enhance their decision-making and profitability while promoting beef safety.

Farmland Industries, Kansas City, Mo., and Archer Daniels Midland Co., Decatur, Ill., have agreed in principle to enter into a grain marketing relationship. Under the agreement, a new company -- ADM/Farmland Inc. -- will lease and operate Farmland's grain assets throughout the United States. Farmland and ADM will share profits equally.

CyberCrop, Fort Collins, Colo., has sold its Web site address to Farms.com, Memphis. CyberCrop president and CEO Scott Deeter says his company will no longer trade grain online. The transaction did not include CyberCrop's cash-grain trading system, logistics tool or customer relationship manager platform.

Mitsui & Co. Ltd. of Japan has entered the U.S. crop protection market and expanded its global Agri-Science operation by purchasing Thermo Trilogy Corporation assets from Thermo Electron Corporation. The new company, called Certis USA, is a manufacturer of environmentally friendly crop protection products. The acquisition includes production facilities in Wasco, Calif., Decatur, Ill., and Cardiff, UK. Certis headquarters will remain in Columbia, Md.

Monsanto Co., St. Louis, Mo., intends to donate a single Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) genetic marker to the United Soybean Board's Technology Utilization Center to build upon the group's ongoing work on the Better Bean Initiative program. The donation of this marker is expected to quickly accelerate the Better Bean Initiative's goal of developing a high-yielding soybean variety that produces soybeans significantly lower in saturated fat. The mission of the check-off funded Better Bean Initiative is expected to step up the development and availability of soybean seed with enhanced composition traits.

Iowa Farmer Today, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Garst Seed Co., Slater, Iowa, will again team up to provide CornCam on the Web to those interested in watching corn grow in eastern Iowa. As it was in 2000, this year's CornCam will be located on Jim and Sharon Greif's farm, not far from the small town of Prairieburg. The site can be accessed at www.corncam.com.