SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois agriculture community gathered at BRANDT global headquarters to celebrate National Ag Day behind this year’s theme "Sustaining Future Generations."

An estimated 200 ag professionals, FFA members and distinguished guests joined Gov. Bruce Rauner and state Agriculture Director Philip Nelson in honoring the agriculture industry and celebrating the abundance provided by American farmers. Other speakers included David Erickson, vice president of the Illinois Farm Bureau; Marty Marr, board member of the Illinois Corn Growers Assoc.; Carrie Winkelmann, District 9 director of the Illinois Soybean Assoc.; and Karl Barnhart, chief marketing officer of BRANDT.

A special Ag Day Proclamation was issued by the Executive Department of the State of Illinois declaring March 18, 2015, Ag Day in Illinois. The proclamation was presented to the Brandt family and their employees for their contributions to agriculture and taking a leadership role in sustaining future generations of agriculture professionals.

TUCKER, Ga. — Poultry industry facilities with outstanding safety programs are invited to apply for recognition under the Joint Poultry Industry Safety Award Program.

The program is open to National Chicken Council, National Turkey Federation and U.S. Poultry & Egg Assoc. members with poultry or egg processing plants, further processing facilities, hatcheries, feed mills and rendering facilities that through the implementation of innovative and effective programs have injury and illness rates below the industry average for three consecutive years.

The poultry processing OSHA total recordable illness and injury rate for 2013 was 4.5 cases per 100 full-time workers. Poultry processing’s 2013 rate represents an outstanding 80.2 percent improvement from 1994.

Award program application forms are available at http://bit.ly/1EW4Pk7 or on the www.uspoultry.org website. The application deadline for the 2015 awards is April 20. The annual awards will be presented during the National Safety Conference for the Poultry Industry, Aug. 24-26, at the Hilton Myrtle Beach Resort in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

MIAMI, Fla. — Blumberg Grain, in partnership with the government of Egypt, is developing one of the world’s largest integrated food security systems for grain storage.

The first phase of the new food security project covers 93 sites across Egypt and enables primary processing of 3.7 million metric tons of wheat per year across a platform of 3.6 million square feet of storage space

Egypt is the largest purchaser of wheat in the world. Purchases of the country’s wheat are directed by the Ministry of Supply, who selected Blumberg Grain to design and build the country’s new food security system. The system will support the Ministry of Supply in recovering crops lost to post-harvest losses, saving Egypt up to an estimated US $200 million annually.

MEDFORD, Mass. — Agrivida Inc., an innovative technology company focused on animal nutrition, announced in January it raised $12 million as part of a Series D financing to advance the development and commercialization of its proprietary GraINzyme feed additive enzymes and INergyTM silage technology platforms.

Cultivian Sandbox Ventures led the round. An affiliate of Maschhoff Family Foods, Middleland Capital and Sontag Family Trust joined as new Series D investors, while Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, DAG Ventures, Bright Capital Partners, Gentry Venture Partners, Northgate Capital and PrairieGold Venture Partners also participated.

YUMA, Ariz. — Gowan USA announced Jan. 15 federal registration for Zing! Fungicide for use in potato, tomato, cucurbits and onions. With federal registration, state registrations will soon follow.

Zing! Fungicide is a new premix fungicide combining two proven active ingredients into an easy-to-use liquid SC formulation. The combination of zoxamide and chlorothalonil works synergistically to enhance the performance beyond each individual product. Zing! Fungicide provides excellent control of early and late blight, downy mildew, anthracnose and alternaria diseases.

Used as a preventive fungicide, Zing! Fungicide offers two FRAC codes M5 and 22 to deliver multiple modes of action for enhanced control, to defend against disease resistance, and add longevity to your treatment program.

MADISON, Wis. — In celebration of the International Year of Soil 2015 (IYS), the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) is coordinating a series of activities throughout to educate the public about the importance of soil. March’s theme is "Soils Support Agriculture."

As part of its celebration of IYS, SSSA is developing a series of 12 two-minute educational videos. March’s Soils Support Agriculture video can be viewed at www.soils.org/iys/monthly-videos

The American Society of Agronomy co-sponsored the video. Educational materials can be viewed at www.soils.org/iys by clicking on the "March" tab. Follow SSSA on Facebook through "SSSA.soils," on Twitter at SSSA_Soils or visit its blog, "Soils Matter," at http://soilsmatter.wordpress.com