More than one-hundred Illinois farm families will be reminded to stay “Alert, Aware & Alive” as they enjoy a complimentary lunch meal delivered to where they are working during the September 20-26 National Farm Safety & Health Week. Farm Credit Services of Illinois is sponsoring the annual “Meals in the Field” program to help promote farm safety. Growing up with meals on wheels out in the field, I imagine that receiving meals while doing field work was a great hit amongst the participating farmers and ranchers!
The theme of the 2009 National Farm Safety & Health Week is “Rural Roadway Safety: Alert, Aware, & Alive.” From Monday through Friday, each of Farm Credit’s 20 branch offices selects at least one farm family to provide a lunch meal. The Farm Credit staff serves the lunch wherever the farmers are working that day – whether that is in the field, in the machine shed, or around the kitchen table.
Agriculture continues to rank as one the most dangerous occupations and industries in North America and across the globe. Illinois farm-related deaths increased for the second consecutive year last year. Farm fatalities in the state numbered 33 from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009 – up from the 29 deaths in 2007-2008. Roadway collisions were the second leading cause of death; tractor rollover is number one. Especially during the long harvest work days, farmers are reminded to take breaks and drink plenty of water to help them stay alert while operating machinery – both in the field and on the public roads.
Here is the happy group attending the Novus International Media Day. It includes Novus and media folks. We caught a helpful staffer walking by so we could all be in the photo.
The group is having a tour and dinner this evening at the Schlafly Brewery. We’ll gather again in the morning to learn about another focus of the company before heading out to their “Green Acres” research farm.
Our tour guide for the Novus International headquarters building today was Don Vondriska, Director of Business Development , pictured on the left here speaking to attendees. As I’ve reported before when covering the facility grand opening, this is a LEED Platinum certified building and very unique. Don took us around and show how they’ve designed with the environment and employees in mind. Everything is open so you can see outside from just about anywhere. The staff leaders have the same size cubicles as everyone else. For those in labs downstairs, there are special pipes that bring sunlight into their work areas. Don says the design really helps with teamwork and collaboration. You’ll hear some chickens in the background because after the office/lab area we walked to an adjacent building where the company conducts some animal research on a small scale.
Don says they brought media in to help us better understand the diversity of products and science basis of the company. He sees future growth in a lot of different species and science based products that will include equine, companion animals and even humans.
One of the key targets for Novus International is the swine industry and to talk to us about it was Dr. Felipe Navarro. He started out asking each of us what our definition of “sustainable” is. He got a lot of different definitions. He has found that when talking about the subject it’s important to know how most of his audience defines it.
He says that the company is focusing on how to make producers more efficient. That’s a word you hear a lot here at Novus. Ways they can help a producer become more efficient will help their customers stay in business. Genetic improvements have made huge strides but now it’s very important to make sure they have good nutritional feed. He says they’re utilizing the strong scientific profile they have available in their research facilities to create solutions for their customers.
This photo is just to show you how important it is in today’s new media world to have electicity and internet access when you bring the media in for an event of any kind. Today I’ve been attending the Novus International Media Day which will conclude tomorrow.
As you can see, the ZimmComm big boy Macbook Pro is fired up and that’s how I’m able to post photos and interviews so quickly. Yes, I can edit one audio file while listening to the next presentation. Challenging? Yeah. But possible. So next time you plan your media day keep the new media in mind like Novus has done today!
New Holland, one of the sponsors of our coverage of the Farm Progress Show was the first company of its kind to join The Biodiesel Alliance. To talk about it I spoke with Gene Hemphill, New Holland and Tom Verry, National Biodiesel Board. NBB was the founder of the Alliance.
The Biodiesel Alliance is a diverse coalition of organizations, agencies and businesses from across the nation who find common ground in their support for biodiesel fuel. Founded and managed by the National Biodiesel Board, the Biodiesel Alliance supports information sharing and opportunities to help advance the use of clean-burning, renewable biodiesel fuel that meets high industry standards. As a result, the Biodiesel Alliance is instrumental in helping others to recognize the benefits of biodiesel to human health, the environment, national energy security and the US economy.
Gene and New Holland have been big supporters of the biodiesel industry since the days when it was called soydiesel. The company has been innovative in warranting their tractors on blends of biodiesel fuel up to 100 percent. They’ve also encouraged their dealers to join the alliance and many, many people to join the Biodiesel Backers.
Tom says the number one issue facing the industry right now is the proposed RFS2 that EPA has put forth and for which they’re soliciting comments until later this month. The proposed regs require 1 billion gallons of biomass biodiesel by 2012. That should be accomplished mostly by biodiesel but EPA is penalizing biodiesel through its measurement of its carbon score from the controversial indirect land use issue. He says they’re failing to take into account things like increased efficiency and production of soybeans.
You can listen to my interview with Gene and Tom below:
Our first main presentation at the Novus International media day was on poultry marketing and research by Dr. Nasser Odetallah, Global Product Manager Enzymes. He says the products he works on help improve feed utilization efficiency in poultry as well as swine and other animals including companion animals.
He really wanted to focus on the issue of efficiency and provided some interesting examples of how we have made major strides in feeding animals so that we produce much more food but with basically the same or less animals than just back in the 1950′s. In fact, we actually feed the animals less but they produce even more. This is critical he says when you look at the projection of how much food we need to produce to feed the world in the future and to eliminate hunger and starvation. A figure he provided was that there are 6 billion people in the world and 1 billion of them go to sleep hungry and that 1 billion are not in North America or Europe, the majority live in sub-Saharan Africa, China, India and other impoverished areas. He says Novus see the world as one and they’re working specifically to alleviate hunger in those areas.
He also stressed how important food safety as a result of the increased production with the use of their products is to Novus. He also makes a point how we all have a responsibility to make better use of our resources to contribute to developing a more sustainable world.
Journalists attending the Novus International media day were greeted by Scott Fleetwod, Executive Director, Global Marketing and Products. I sat down with him right after his opening remarks to discuss what he hopes we accomplish here today and tomorrow.
To start with, Scott says they’ve divided the whole marketing division of the company to one that “faces the company” called the Product Group and one that “faces the customer” called the Marketing Group. The product group develops the products while the marketing group interfaces with the consumer.
He reminded us that the company was a spinoff from Monsanto back in the mid 80′s and has grown tremendously since then. Since many of their products are targeted to animal nutrition and health he says that he believes there will be recovery in the animal industry starting with beef and even in dairy within the coming year. The company also see great opportunities to improve animal food production in developing countries where the bulk of the hungry and starving people are today.
While we’re here we’ll get to tour this new company headquarters facility which was built with sustainability in mind. Sustainability is a key work here at Novus. We’ll probably use it a lot in our coverage of the event.
Emily Winegar, 14, of Aubrey, Texas, took home her first AQHYA World Champion in Youth Reining. Winegar and Red Berry Wine owned by Green Valley Ranch earned the win with a score of 215.5.
Alltech was featured as one of eight green companies by Inc. magazine.
Syngenta is launching the new NK-1 Class Soybeans for the 2010 planting season.
Blake Martin, a 27-year-old row crop and dairy farmer from Kouts, Ind., has been awarded a free lease on a Versatile 375hp four-wheel drive tractor for his entry in the Versatile Simple & True Challenge.
New dynamics are shaping the future for agriculture and farmers need to be watching the markets more closely than ever before to keep ahead of the game, according to market analyst Arlen Suderman with Farm Futures.
“There’s a lot of money flow factors that drive the money, that tie what happens in grains to the bond market, the energy market, the value of the dollar,” Arlen said during a talk at the BASF tent during the 2009 Farm Progress Show. “That creates a lot of uncertainty, but there’s also reasons why it happens on a day to day basis.”
Arlen talked about factors like crude oil, corn and soybean stocks, export demand and much more. “Part of the real key over the next six months is when do we get that first frost, that will be a major driver in the soybean market with demand being so strong and that will set the tone for corn and wheat as well,” Arlen said.
Listen to or download a brief interview I did with Arlen right after his presentation:
The ethanol organization Growth Energy had a strong presence at the 2009 Farm Progress show, stressing the strong ties the renewable fuel has to agriculture and rural America. “If you want to revitalize rural America, the production of renewable fuels and energy is the greatest economic opportunity that’s come along in my lifetime,” CEO Tom Buis told me in an interview. Tom’s lifetime in agriculture began as a grain and livestock farmer in Indiana, then moved to Washington DC as an agricultural advisor to members of Congress, and as president of the National Farmers Union prior to taking his current position earlier this year.
Growth Energy was encouraging farmers to sign up for a chance to win a new, flex-fuel Ford F150 at the Farm Progress show – and urging them to join the eTeam, which CEO Tom Buis says is an important way farmers can play a role in getting the word out about the benefits of ethanol. “The eTeam is a way that everybody can get involved at whatever level to help do that, because it’s going to take a team effort,” Tom said.
Growth Energy also introduced a new initiative at Farm Progress called labelmyfuel.com, which we reported on live from the show as it happened. Organization co-chairman retired Gen. Wesley Clark says the concept of country of origin labeling for fuel makes sense from a national security perspective so people know where they are sending their money. “But beyond the national security argument, I think there is a strong case to be made for America’s own domestic liquid fuel, which is ethanol,” Clark said. “There’s no doubt that if people could see it at the pump, day after day, and choose if they want their money to go overseas or stay right here and bring prosperity at home and help America’s communities and farmers – it will stay right here.”
Listen to back-to-back interviews with Buis and Clark here:
It’s time to get back to work tomorrow and that will be from the Novus International Media Day, “Sustainable Culture, Global Vision.” During the next two days we’re going to get to learn a lot more about this company through presentations from each division and touring their new headquarters and their research farm.
So you can expect tweets and posts and you know where to find them if you’re not already subscribing on your computer or phone.
One of the press conferences at Farm Progress Show featured USDA Rural Development. To start it out we heard from Colleen Callahan, Illinois State Director for Rural Development. The former farm broadcaster was very comfortable in the media tent on the other side of the podium! She introduced new USDA Rural Development Under Secretary, Dallas Tonsager.
Tonsager used the opportunity to talk about new grants and loans especially in the area of energy and water systems. He says they should be awarding funds for broadband projects soon as well.
Tonsager announced new energy grants and loans across the country totaling more than $13 million. He also announced a large grant and loan totaling $716,000 to South Lawrence Water Corporation as provided under the consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance and continuing Appropriations Act of 2009.
You can listen to the press conference remarks below:
Add another farm podcast to your list. The U. S. Grains Council has introduced Council Cast.
A team of Egyptian nutritionists traveled to the United States this week for a short course at the International Grains Program at Kansas State University, designed to educate the participants on the inclusion of U.S. sorghum in feed rations. Chris Corry, U.S. Grains Council senior director of international operations, gives an overview of U.S. sorghum, the Council’s success with sorghum initiatives around the world, and its first-ever introduction to the Egyptian market. Mike Deering, USGC director of communications, spoke with Corry about this initiative funded by Council member United Sorghum Checkoff Program.
You can listen to the program with this link. Now doesn’t that Mike Deering have a “radio” voice?
The mobile browser version of AgWired is now live. This means that if you open AgWired.com on your mobile phone you’ll get a very simple version of the website automatically. You can see what it looks like on an iPhone below and I’ve also tested it on a Blackberry. There’s no special “mobile version url” that you need to know either. Many companies have built special “phone friendly” versions of their websites but they usually require you to know a different url and they don’t necessarily offer as much functionality as this.
It functions much like a feed reader if you’re familiar with them (and I hope you are). You’ll see a list of all the posts and pages on the AgWired homepage. It will show you their title and link to them. When you go to a post you’ll see the title, the text and the photos we have posted and the comment form if you’d like to post a comment. At the bottom of the page if you scroll down is a link to take you to your phone’s “regular” version of the website. This is handy on an iPhone which has a full fledged browser if you’d like to see the page in normal view. You can click back and forth easily.
So, AgWired now loads fast on your phone and is very easy to read and use! It’s one more reason you might want to subscribe to Agwired Mobile, our text message service that delivers you a text message each time we do a post on AgWired (except during 8pm-8am central time). Visitors to the phone browser will be getting there from AgWired Mobile, our Twitter feed if they have a Twitter app on their phone, from their phone’s rss reader and by going to the site directly. I think we’ll have a lot of folks visiting and seeing the mobile version. Interested in sponsoring it? Contact Dave Larson now.
There are acres of photos available on line in our Flickr photo albums from Farm Progress Show 2009. The ZimmComm media team of Carly, Chuck and myself took hundreds of photos around the show and picked the best for the albums. We have 433 in the regular show album so far (Chuck still needs to load a few more) and another 129 in the BASF photo album. Feel free to download and use any photos you would like – or any of the audio we have loaded on the site – no charge!
It was a busy three days and both the weather and attendance must have been record setting. This was my first show, but from what I understand, there has probably never been a show in history that had the kind of picture perfect weather we had all three days. It’s always either cold and rainy, dry and windy, or ridiculously hot. You just can’t complain about three days of blue skies, moderate temperatures and cool breezes!
We still have LOTS more posts to do from the show, so we will be working on that over the long holiday weekend as Chuck and I celebrate our anniversary with a weekend at Lake of the Ozarks! We sincerely thank our sponsors BASF and New Holland for bringing you our coverage here on Agwired and AgLeader Technology on Precision Pays.
While I was driving my golf cart through the Farm Progress Show yesterday I shot a short video clip so you can see what the crowd was like. You can also get a sense of how nice the weather was and is again today.
For many in the ag media, events like the Farm Progress Show are opportunities to catch up with friends. Cindy and I saw good friend Leah (Guffey) Banister. Leah’s wedding July 4th was my last trip on the road for almost 2 months. Leah used to be a farm broadcaster in Springfield, IL and now works for their convention and visitor’s bureau. She was showing us her new Nikon D500 camera.
We may compete with each other at times but when it comes down to it, ag journalists share a lot of time together at events like this and face a lot of the same challenges. I like how we’re always willing to help each other out and it has been great to be here at the show and see so many friends in the media and agrimarketing.
The New Holland Rustler utility vehicle isn’t the only attention grabber here at the Farm Progress Show. The retro Boomer 8N is also front and center. I spoke with New Holland Product Manager, Paul Trella, about their new products like the Boomer 8N.
The latest addition to the company’s Boomer line, the redesigned 8N features distinctive, timeless styling, a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) that creates a fun, easy, car-like driving experience as well as a variety of customizable accessories. First sold in 1948, this updated version of the classic 8N is now available to consumers seeking reliable power wrapped in a compact and time-honored package.
Of course the Rustler is also getting attention and Paul says customers are saying, “It’s about time.” Of course you can get the new vehicles in New Holland blue but you can also customize them in camo or black or probably any color you’d like. I’ve got several photos of them in our photo album.
You can learn more about the new things from New Holland in my interview with Paul below and you can see the Rustler in action in this video clip:
Ag Leader Technology, Inc., announced new and enhanced industry file format support from the market-leading SMS Basic and SMS Advanced precision farming desktop software.
NAFB is initiating its third major national research study in four years, with the Internet Ag Information Usage Study commissioned with Ag Media Research, Sioux Falls, S.D.
T-L Irrigation Co., announces the availability of a 3-wheel tower option. The 3-wheel option can be used with any non-towable pivot tower that has or will be encountering problems with machine flotation.
Livestock Publication gala set for Oct. 30: Two outstanding individuals will be honored and their portraits unveiled and hung in the LPC Hall of Honor during the American Royal.
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
David conducted a presentation on delivering expert opinion via social media to an audience at the start of International Poultry Expo week. He's got some great information about who consumers trust and how you can use today's consumer behavior to help communicate your message.
More than one-hundred Illinois farm families will be reminded to stay “Alert, Aware & Alive” as they enjoy a complimentary lunch meal delivered to where they are working during the September 20-26 National Farm Safety & Health Week. Farm Credit Services of Illinois is sponsoring the annual “Meals in the Field” program to help promote farm safety. Growing up with meals on wheels out in the field, I imagine that receiving meals while doing field work was a great hit amongst the participating farmers and ranchers!
Agriculture continues to rank as one the most dangerous occupations and industries in North America and across the globe. Illinois farm-related deaths increased for the second consecutive year last year. Farm fatalities in the state numbered 33 from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009 – up from the 29 deaths in 2007-2008. Roadway collisions were the second leading cause of death; tractor rollover is number one. Especially during the long harvest work days, farmers are reminded to take breaks and drink plenty of water to help them stay alert while operating machinery – both in the field and on the public roads.
Here is the happy group attending the Novus International Media Day. It includes Novus and media folks. We caught a helpful staffer walking by so we could all be in the photo.
Our tour guide for the 
One of the key targets for 
This photo is just to show you how important it is in today’s new media world to have electicity and internet access when you bring the media in for an event of any kind. Today I’ve been attending the 
and 
Our first main presentation at the Novus International media day was on 
Journalists attending the 
New dynamics are shaping the future for agriculture and farmers need to be watching the markets more closely than ever before to keep ahead of the game, according to market analyst Arlen Suderman with 
The ethanol organization 
Growth Energy also introduced a new initiative at Farm Progress called 
It’s time to get back to work tomorrow and that will be from the 
One of the press conferences at Farm Progress Show featured USDA Rural Development. To start it out we heard from Colleen Callahan, Illinois State Director for Rural Development. The former farm broadcaster was very comfortable in the media tent on the other side of the podium! She introduced new USDA Rural Development Under Secretary, Dallas Tonsager.
Tonsager used the opportunity to talk about new grants and loans especially in the area of energy and water systems. He says they should be awarding funds for broadband projects soon as well.
Add another farm podcast to your list. The 
There are acres of photos available on line in our Flickr photo albums from Farm Progress Show 2009. The ZimmComm media team of Carly, Chuck and myself took hundreds of photos around the show and picked the best for the albums. We have 433 in the 
It was a busy three days and both the weather and attendance must have been record setting. This was my first show, but from what I understand, there has probably never been a show in history that had the kind of picture perfect weather we had all three days. It’s always either cold and rainy, dry and windy, or ridiculously hot. You just can’t complain about three days of blue skies, moderate temperatures and cool breezes!
We still have LOTS more posts to do from the show, so we will be working on that over the long holiday weekend as Chuck and I celebrate our anniversary with a weekend at Lake of the Ozarks! We sincerely thank our sponsors 
For many in the ag media, events like the Farm Progress Show are opportunities to catch up with friends. Cindy and I saw good friend Leah (Guffey) Banister. Leah’s wedding July 4th was my last trip on the road for almost 2 months. Leah used to be a farm broadcaster in Springfield, IL and now works for their convention and visitor’s bureau. She was showing us her new 
The 
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
