When it comes to communicating NOVUS International’s commitment to the beef industry Dan is the man. He’s Dan Meagher, VIce President, Sales, Americas. He was on hand at the Cattle Industry Convention to help spread the word about the company name and products for the beef industry.
Dan says that NOVUS is investing in people and products. A lot of the research the company has done has been on beef. He thinks they have an opportunity right now in this segment of the industry. He says they’ve moved into the dairy and pork sectors and this is just part of their diversification strategy. Their products are designed to maximize the nutrition capabilities of the animal so it reaches its full potential while reducing costs.
Mycotoxins can be an issue in feed anytime, but with the late, wet harvest in 2009 there is an extra level of concern this year and it was a topic of discussion for poultry producers and industry representatives meeting at the International Poultry Expo/Feed Expo in Atlanta this past week.
“This is a year when we should be extra sensitive, not only testing to make sure we know what we have on our grain coming in, but also considering proactive choices to treat symptoms for the low thresholds of mycotoxins that are always present in some of the grains each year,” says Wendell Knehans with Novus International. Novus recently conducted a study on the effects of their product Solis Mos on the presence of both aflatoxin and ochratoxin in poultry feed. “What we found at both a moderate level (400 mg) of ochratoxin infestation and 800, a very high challenge, is that the birds maintain their performance in the presence of that toxin challenge,” Wendell said.
Listen to or download my interview with Wendell in the player below:
The U.S. Poultry & Egg Association elected the 2010 slate of officers and directors during the International Poultry Expo.
The new chairman of the organization is Steve Willardsen (left) of Cargill Value Added Meats, Wichita, KS. He was presented with the traditional “working man’s gavel” by 2009 chairman Monty Henderson, George’s, Inc., Springdale, AR. Thanks to USPOULTRY communications director Larry Brown for providing the photo.
Other officers include Mark Waller of Ingram Farms, Cullman, AL, Treasurer; Gary Cooper, Cooper Farms, Oakwood, OH, Vice Chairman; and James Adams, Wenger’s Feed Mill, Rheems, PA, Secretary.
The U.S. Poultry & Egg Association is the world’s largest and most active poultry organization, representing the entire industry as an “All Feather” association. Membership includes producers and processors of broilers, turkeys, ducks, eggs, and breeding stock, as well as allied companies. Formed in 1947, the association has affiliations in 27 states and member companies worldwide. USPOULTRY also sponsors the International Poultry Expo.
Here’s NCBA CEO Forrest Roberts being interviewed in the media room here at the Cattle Industry Convention. I had my turn and our interview is posted below. Additionally, I have his remarks today when he gave the NCBA management report at the annual meeting.
One thing you’ll notice from talking with or listening to Forrest is his energy level. Even with all the challenges facing his industry he’s very optimistic. It has been just a year that he’s been in his current position.
Forrest mentions the work of the NCBA Governance Task Force and after his report this morning the recommendations passed by a vote of 201 to 13. I’m sure we’ll be getting details of the changes since there is still a lot of work to be done on re-structuring the organization. Working groups will be set up and the next step will take place at the summer meeting.
Welcome new CBB Chairman Dan Dierschke, Texas rancher. Dan took the gavel this morning at the annual meeting and I spoke with him about his priorities for the coming year.
Dan says he has three goals as chairman: 1) develop an effective response to the increasing demands of the anti-animal use activists, 2) continue to use checkoff investments to build beef demand, and 3) reduce counter-productive arguments within the industry and stress our common goals.
Here’s the list of new officers/executive committee members:
Chairman: Dan Dierschke, TX
Vice Chairman: Tom Jones, AR
Secretary/Treasurer: Robert Fountain, Jr., GA
Virginia Coehlo, CA
Virginia Davis, IN
Will Frazee, IA
Wesley Grau, NM
Kristy Lage, NE
Hank Maxey, Jr., VA
Daryl Berlier Owen, TX
Sid Sumner, FL
Each annual meeting of the CBB concludes with a report from the CEO. Tom Ramey reported this morning and I have his comments recorded for you to listen to.
Tom detailed the changes in the staff during the last year and says he feels real good about the people who are working on behalf of the checkoff in the office. He mentioned that the latest producer attitude survey showed that 69 percent either strongly or somewhat strongly approve of the checkoff. That’s up slightly from last year. Tom also mentioned that he and the officers are committed to working with NCBA to help achieve the mission of improving beef demand.
At the annual CBB Banquet we honored outgoing Chairman, Lucinda Williams. She’s seen here with one of the quilts she made for the staff and board. All board members were asked to sign them before they left.
Then we heard comments from both Dan Dierschke, incoming CBB Chairman and Tom Ramey, CBB CEO. They came to the stage and expressed their appreciation and enjoyment with working with Lucinda. They noted her endless energy and care for other people at all times.
The incoming NCBA President is Illinois cattleman Steve Foglesong. He dropped by the Livestock Publications Council lunch today.
He told the agricultural journalists attending the luncheon to reach out to other media when they see them reporting inaccurate information. He says that when he sees problems he’s going to do something about it and he’s quite willing to engage people who disagree with him.
Fifteen years ago, StollerUSA opened up an office in Australia, and today Stoller Australia has demonstrated that they have many products that are beneficial for Australian growers. I caught up with Richard Emery, who runs this division during the Ag Associates Conference. He began by telling me that the country has a diverse range of crops including wheat and cotton, mangoes and table grapes, citrus, vegetables, and more.
One of the country’s biggest challenges is water scarcity – the country has been in a drought for nearly 10 years. Emery told me that the drought has flown down through many of the crops and water has become a very scarce commodity and has become one of the company’s biggest challenges.
However, Stoller has some products that help growers address some of these challenges including Root Feed. “For example, Root Feed has become very popular because it builds the root system of the tree or plant. So it actually makes it a more durable plant and able to overcome some of these stress periods,” explained Emery. “And also the development of the product Bio-Forge has been very timely because we’re now using it after a drought stress or heat wave. Afterwards, we apply Bio-Forge and we get a much quicker recovery of the plant.”
Bio-Forge can be used universally, whereas Root Feed, Emery notes, is limited to where there is a good fertigation system.
The importance of root systems is very new to growers in Australia and Emery says that his team spends a good amount of time educating the grower about the importance of strong, healthy roots. Emery concluded, “The roots are the brains of the the plant. So they need to be doing everything they can to have a robust, continually growing root system under their crop.”
Dave Alexander is a consultant with Agri-Science Technology. His area of expertise is soil and he exams, assesses and helps a grower understand where he is at using his product history and goals. I spent some time with Alexander during the Ag Associates Conference sponsored by StollerUSA.
“In my practice I build a strong foundation first and then bring in extra technology,” explained Alexander. “In doing so, we primarily bring in Stoller technology.”
I asked him what the biggest problem growers in his area faced in regards to soil. He answered that his biggest challenge is helping them to understand the agronomic situation from an NPK value system. While he acknowledged that understanding this system is vitally important, he also stressed that growers need to look beyond the system and study secondary systems.
“When it comes to fertilization balance you really have to go beyond NPK. We’re a very educated society even in agriculture, and if NPK was the answer, we should have learned NPK was the solution 30 years ago,” said Alexander.
One of the secondary systems he is referring to include the control of hormone balance. “Keeping that balance is what will increase our production more than anything.”
He went on to explain that the first two weeks of any crop is the most important time frame to start that process and stresses that building a foundation program during this time is important.
In conclusion, I asked him what he felt was important for growers to understand and he said, “I think we have to learn to trust the technology that’s in the marketplace as long as the people who are delivering the technology understand what it is, what it’s supposed to do and what the outcome is. So ask yourself, what’s out there that we can utilize to extract more of that potential that we know exists?”
Wally the steer is getting a lot of attention at the NOVUS International booth in the NCBA Trade Show. He’s there to make the point of how important it is to put the right fuel in the engine. With animals, it’s no different and NOVUS would love to talk to cattlemen about it.
This week, during the Ag Associates Conference hosted by StollerUSA, I had the opportunity to talk with Mike Molnar, with Town and Country Ag. His company is a co-op working in nine counties in North Eastern Ohio and three of their locations provide full-service ag products and applications for growers.
Molnar told me that he has been using Stoller products for the last four years to help overcome one of their biggest challenges which is poor soil. “We’re always looking for ways to improve root growth to get better yield in our crops,” he said.
He, along with other growers in the area, are still learning and he recently did a trial with grass hay where he has seen some pretty drastic results using Bio-Forge and Folizyme together. He mentioned that he has also done some good things with soybeans using Golden Harvest Plus, a Stoller product.
“If you’ve got a plant stalled or not growing the way you want it to, you can get that plant to jumpstart a little bit and take off and start growing again for you,” explained Molnar.
Molar has learned some important things working with Stoller, one of which is that its not just about nutrients. It’s also about the hormone balance of the plant. “Cytokinin is a hormone that’s manufactured in the root tips. So, if you have a root system that’s not actively growing and not making new root tips, you’re not going to have the hormone production or the nutrient uptake you need to have maximum yield of your crop,” said Molnar. “Anytime during the growing season that our roots stops growing, we’re losing yield.”
I posted comments earlier this week made by NCBA President Gary Voogt and finally got the video uploaded so you can watch what he had to say. His comments ran longer than YouTube allows but most of them are here. If you didn’t listen to his comments you can still do so here.
“The main objective that Stoller has is crop productivity. We’re interested in enhancing yields,” said Dr. Albert Liptay, the Director of Research and Development with StollerUSA, during an interview with me at the Ag Associates Conference this week. “We’re trying to understand what in the system of productivity will enhance yields.”
Yield enhancements was one of the focuses during the week-long conference for good reason – yield enhancements mean more profits. To improve yield, StollerUSA has been researching a new product called STO-01 which in early tests is seeing substantial results. While Dr. Liptay was enthusiastic to share his results, he also cautioned that the product was still being tested and it would be several more years and many more tests before it would be ready for market.
Dr. Liptay explained that STO-01 not only builds incredible root systems, but also builds strong root tips. “It’s the root tips that a lot of the hormones are synthesized that are sent up to the shoots and develop branching, develop fruits and develop seeds. So it’s this whole plant combination of good roots, good root tips, good type of branching, and good canopy performance that gives us the enhanced yield.”
Plants are regulated by the control systems they have, explained Dr. Liptay, and the control systems are basically the root tips and the shoot tips. “These systems are regulated by molecules that activate gene expression and it’s this gene expression that is important to us and what combination of molecules and minerals best effect the desired type of gene expression for productivity. Therefore, product quality and also pest tolerance.”
He also mentioned the importance of understanding epigenetics and learning how to turn on the set of genes that will get the desired result.
To learn more about the importance of root tips, shoot tips and epigenetics for yield enhancements, listen to my interview with Dr. Liptay below.
I’d like to congratulate Mark Vail in his new position of Executive Director for the National Association of Farm Broadcasting. NAFB just made the announcement this morning.
Vail brings with him 34 years of experience in the broadcast arena, encompassing a variety of positions including farm broadcaster, general manager and director of operations.
“I’m very excited to have Mark on board as our executive director,” said Greg Akagi, NAFB president. “Mark has truly done it all for NAFB, and his knowledge and experience will give the organization a strong voice for many years to come.”
For the past 19 years Vail has worked for Eagle Communications, Hays, Kan., in various capacities, during which he was executive producer and co-creator of the national ag show AgriTalk. Since 1998, he has served as vice president of radio for the employee-owned company.
“It is an honor to be selected as the executive director of NAFB. I look forward to working with the board and the many dedicated industry leaders as we build on a strong foundation established by generations of legacy farm broadcasters and innovative agricultural and rural partners,” Vail said. “The association has a solid strategic plan in place, and I am confident the membership will continue to use the plan as a guide for continued growth in a very dynamic media environment.”
Les Yoder is an expert on dairy cattle. His company Homestead Nutrition works not only to help improve the nutritional value of dairy feed, but also works on crop and soil nutrition. I spoke with him during the Ag Associates Conference to learn more about the benefits of good feed nutrition.
“The forage component of the rations is extremely important to how we’re able to balance that program and make that cow very productive while maintaining health and profitability,” said Yoder.
The better quality the forage is, the less a farmer has to depend on other things like the purchase of additional feed (corn and soybeans). “Quality forage is extremely, extremely important in a profitable dairy nutrition’s diet,” he said.
Yoder began using Bio-Forge nearly 10 years ago implementing that product for corn silage for dairy rations and as a result, really started seeing some benefits of improved quality, improved digestibility and improved plant health all of which made a better ration. He also noted that it helped to make a healthier and less expensive diet.
His early successes led him to work more with Stoller to understand the “language of the plant.” In other words, learning how to understand how the plant grows, how it reacts to environmental stresses, diseases and insect pressures.
I asked him if he could impart some personal wisdom to the diary farmers across the world, what it would be? He answered, “Anything they do to improve forage quality improves animal health, decreases the need for supplementation and just make a better ration.” And a better ration, he concluded, means a healthier cow and a more profitable dairy operation.
One of the most popular attractions at Wednesday’s grand opening of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Trade Show in San Antonio belonged to U.S. Premium Beef. Thanks to Joe Schuele, USMEF for this story including photo and audio.
The company, a member of the U.S. Meat Export Federation, decided to promote the value of beef exports by serving samples of the Asian barbecue dish Yakiniku (YAK-A-NEE-KOO) – a thinly sliced cut derived from the beef short rib that is especially popular in South Korea and Japan. The samples were enjoyed by a steady stream of cattle producers throughout the evening.
Bill Miller, director of communications for U.S. Premium Beef, explains that the purpose of the barbecue promotion was to illustrate for cattle producers the critical importance of U.S. beef exports to their industry, and to the bottom line of their operations. Listen to or download (mp3) Bill here: cic-10-premium-1.mp3
Miller also comments on the important role played by the Beef Checkoff Program in promoting U.S. beef in overseas markets. Listen to or download (mp3) Bill here: cic-10-premium-2.mp3
Veteran farm broadcaster Milt Bliss received his heavenly reward this week on January 27 – 100 years and 6 days old, bless his soul.
Milt’s century mark was recognized by Willard Scott on the Today show last week and he received numerous birthday wishes from friends around the world. Milt was inducted into the NAFB Hall of Fame in 1994 after a career in agricultural communications that spanned six decades.
Joey Spicola, owner and operator of a West Texas cattle ranch, is developing and marketing a computer driven, hand-held livestock weighing device, ClicRweight.
AG CONNECT Expo 2010 attracted more than 7,700 registered attendees, making it a resounding success in these tough economic times. Planning is already underway for AG CONNECT Expo 2011, which is set for Jan. 7-10, 2011, in Atlanta, Ga.
EMD Crop BioScience has introduced a new formulation of Torque IF with LCO Promoter Technology for corn that offers growers and Retailers more flexibility and convenience.
Novus International brought a game changing baseball great to the International Poultry Expo in Atlanta to symbolize their company strategy of changing the game in livestock productivity to meet the challenge of feeding a growing global population.
Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson, who played for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1959-1975, was a big hit at the Novus booth, with hundreds lining up to get a photo and autographed baseball. We took about 500 photos in three hours, which we are slowly but surely adding to a separate Flickr photo album for easy downloading by the lucky ones who got to meet “Hoot.”
Gibson’s jersey number 45 was retired by the St. Louis Cardinals, and in 1981, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame. In 1999, he ranked Number 31 on The Sporting News’ list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. In 2004, he was named as the most intimidating pitcher of all time from the Fox Sports Net series The Sports List.
This is the second year that Novus brought a baseball theme to the expo. Last year, it was the legendary Lou Brock, also a St. Louis Cardinal – a tribute to Novus’ hometown.
*Post Update* Just got around to adding this video – which actually turned out pretty good!
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.
When it comes to communicating NOVUS International’s commitment to the beef industry Dan is the man. He’s Dan Meagher, VIce President, Sales, Americas. He was on hand at the Cattle Industry Convention to help spread the word about the company name and products for the beef industry.
Mycotoxins can be an issue in feed anytime, but with the late, wet harvest in 2009 there is an extra level of concern this year and it was a topic of discussion for poultry producers and industry representatives meeting at the International Poultry Expo/Feed Expo in Atlanta this past week.
The new chairman of the organization is Steve Willardsen (left) of Cargill Value Added Meats, Wichita, KS. He was presented with the traditional “working man’s gavel” by 2009 chairman Monty Henderson, George’s, Inc., Springdale, AR. Thanks to USPOULTRY communications director Larry Brown for providing the photo. 
Here’s NCBA CEO Forrest Roberts being interviewed in the media room here at the Cattle Industry Convention. I had my turn and our interview is posted below. Additionally, I have his remarks today when he gave the NCBA management report at the annual meeting.
Welcome new CBB Chairman Dan Dierschke, Texas rancher. Dan took the gavel this morning at the annual meeting and I spoke with him about his priorities for the coming year.
Each annual meeting of the CBB concludes with a report from the CEO. Tom Ramey reported this morning and I have his comments recorded for you to listen to.
At the annual CBB Banquet we honored outgoing Chairman, Lucinda Williams. She’s seen here with one of the quilts she made for the staff and board. All board members were asked to sign them before they left.
The incoming NCBA President is Illinois cattleman Steve Foglesong. He dropped by the 
One of the most popular attractions at Wednesday’s grand opening of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Trade Show in San Antonio belonged to 
Veteran farm broadcaster Milt Bliss received his heavenly reward this week on January 27 – 100 years and 6 days old, bless his soul.
Gibson’s jersey number 45 was retired by the St. Louis Cardinals, and in 1981, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame. In 1999, he ranked Number 31 on The Sporting News’ list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. In 2004, he was named as the most intimidating pitcher of all time from the Fox Sports Net series The Sports List.
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
