I don’t know what I expected after all the horror stories in the news about the Gulf oil spill but it wasn’t crowded immaculate white beach here in Panama City Beach. But that’s what we’ve got as the 12th Annual Southern Peanut Growers Conference gets underway. No oil marring the coastline here. I drove along Hwy. 98 coming in from the east and that’s the way all the beaches looked in that direction although I did see some colorful booms out in the water in a few places. Maybe they’re there just in case.
So, I’ve already had my hot grilled PBJ sandwich in the registration room and conducted a couple of interviews in advance of this evening’s opening dinner. Photos will be added to the Southern Peanut Growers Conference Photo Album so check it often.
Colorado Farm Bureau informed us today that the Farm American Chevrolet that will debut at the Brickyard 400 Sprint Cup race in Indianapolis on Sunday has a different look than when it was on display at NAMA earlier this year. As you can see here, the No. 78 Farm American Chevrolet is now a bright green, yellow, blue and white with the theme of ‘Cultivating the Future’.
Colorado Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers has lots more great photos on their Facebook page, including this YouTube video walk around of the car. Can’t wait to see it on the track!
It’s almost time to go rolling on the river at the Ag Media Summit. If you’re going then sign up to get mobile updates via Commodity Update.
Be sure to sign up for our FREE reminder service this year at the Ag Media Summit: Mobile Updates These tiny texts tell you where you need to be and when. It’s like having a mini agenda on your mobile phone. Sign up now! The Ag Media Summit has entered the mobile era, thanks to the generosity of our technology provider, CommodityUPDATE. Mobile Updates will end at the close of the conference.
You can download the current list of those registered here (pdf).
ZimmComm New Media, publisher of AgWired, is proud to become a Sustaining Sponsor of the National Agri-Marketing Association. We’ve always been an advocate and encourage anyone involved in agricultural marketing and communications to join and get involved.
As a sustaining sponsor you can count on even more information about NAMA activities and news about the industry we all know and love. If your company would like to provide more long term support for NAMA then just give Jenny a call at the NAMA office.
Under Jenny’s leadership NAMA has continued to grow and evolve to serve its members. If you ask most members they’ll tell you that the annual convention and other activities are extremely important to them professionally and personally. We echo that. Just the opportunity to network with friends and clients alone makes it worth the investment.
I had to wonder while watching the live press conference of U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack’s apology for firing an employee over apparently unfounded accusations of racism – how many of those mainstream media journalists had ever been inside the USDA? Were they just bored because the oil stopped gushing in the Gulf and Lindsay Lohan is in jail? I really would never have thought this could be such a HUGE story.
Vilsack offered the most contrite, nearly pathetic, apology that I have ever seen from a public official for firing Georgia USDA official Shirley Sherrod. It was actually refreshing to hear someone in such a high position be so totally and profoundly apologetic for his actions. He took full responsibility and did not put blame on anyone else – not the White House, not the media, not the “tea party blogger” who first put the video out there accusing Sherrod of black against white racism. Good for him.
Vilsack repeatedly said he “deeply regretted” his hasty decision to ask for Sherrod’s resignation. “As a result, a good woman has gone through a very difficult period and I’m going to have to live with that for a long, long time,” he said. “This is a good woman and she’s been put through hell. I could have and should have done a better job.”
I recorded some of the Q&A from the presser which you can listen to here: Vilsack Apology
In a nutshell, the story started unfolding on Monday when Andrew Breitbart of the website Big Government circulated a video clip from a speech that Sherrod made at an NAACP event in March where she talked about wanting to discriminate against a white farmer in danger of losing his farm. As a result of the video, she was condemned by the NAACP and curtly dismissed by Secretary Vilsack on Tuesday. By Tuesday evening, it became apparent that the video was only part of her speech, during which she revealed that this situation changed her attitude towards racism. This morning, all hell broke loose, with blame being tossed all over the place.
Fact is, this is an equal opportunity blame game with plenty to go around. Shep Smith of FOX News ripped most of them in a very genuine soliloquy following Robert Gibbs’ press conference about the mess. He blamed his own network, the White House and the NAACP for failing to fully investigate the video and its source before acting on it. Watch it here.
As Vilsack noted, “This is a teachable moment for me and for all of us. We need to think before we act. I did not think before I acted.” True indeed.
Today TGIF meant, Thank God I’m Fishing. Since I had to come to Florida to cover a farm convention it only seemed to make sense to come a day early and get in a salt water fishing experience. Living in Missouri makes that a rare event anymore.
So, Gary Cooper and I spent the day out on the water with Captain Edward Thomas, T.G.I.F. Charters. This time of year on a 97 degree day you don’t expect much but Gary and I limited out on sea trout and red fish. It’s a good looking board and you know what’s for dinner! What an awesome day on the water. We not only caught lots of fish, including these keepers, but we all looked up at one point and saw a huge tarpon double jump out of the water which was a memorable sight. We weren’t fishing for them and I’ve personally never seen them here (north Florida Gulf peninsula). So, TGIF!
One of the great things at the Wyffels Hybrids Corn Strategies 2010 meeting in Malcom, Iowa is the opportunity farmers are getting to talk to each other, as well as hearing from the experts on the agenda. It’s even better when family farmers are able to get together.
I caught up with a pair of brothers, Jayson and Matt Willimack, who row crop corn and soybeans with their two other brothers and Dad between Oxford Junction and De Witt in Eastern Iowa. They appreciated the fact that this meeting is being held on the Cummings’ family farm near Malcom, Iowa.
“It’s a great environment,” says Matt. “Look in the background and you’ve got Marty Cummings’ bins set up, and it’s stellar looking. It’s a great feel rather than a conference at a hotel.”
And Jayson points out what a great networking tool this place is. “You get to meet farmers from all over the state of Iowa and talk to them in a no pressure situation.”
Both Matt and Jayson say it has been a great meeting with some quality speakers who gave them some great insight into where the future growth in the corn industry will be.
You can hear or download more of my conversation with Matt and Jayson here: Jayson and Matt Willimack
So what kind of company is Wyffels Hybrids? Well, the approximately 600 corn farmers who have gathered on the Cummings farm just north of Malcom, Iowa for Wyffels Corn Strategies 2010 are finding out firsthand (and have known for quite a while) that it is a family-owned seed company located in the heart of the corn belt in Iowa and Illinois.
I caught up with Jeff Hartz, marketing director with Wyffels, to find out a little bit more about the company. In the video below, you can hear Jeff talk about how his company sets itself apart from competitors, some who have decidedly bigger assets, by offering their customers the kind of personal service more should expect to get. He also pointed out that since Wyffels is an independent company, it has the ability to be more flexible with access to a wide variety of manufacturers. If you couldn’t be at the Corn Strategies 2010 to meet the good folks from this truly farmer-focused seed company, you can at least watch what Jeff has to say in the video below. Better yet, contact Wyffels yourself through the company’s website and set up a face-to-face conversation yourself.
The opening session at today’s Wyffels Hybrids Corn Strategies 2010 focused on controlling what you can control.
Steve Johnson, a farm and ag business specialist with Iowa State University, told the tent full of about 600 corn farmers that too many of their colleagues are too focused on the things they can’t control, whether it is politics, oil spills or the weather.
“I’m trying to drive the participants today back to making not only production decisions, but financial and marketing decisions … and spend less time listening to all the clutter in the world [and be] very focused on family, friends, the community and their farm operations.”
Johnson admits that might be easier said than done, considering how connected people are with their iPhones, Blackberries and Internet connections right there in the cab of the tractor. But he says they have to choose to turn off some of those inputs.
“Turn off CNN. Turn off Fox News. Turn off talk radio. Focus on those things you have control over.”
Johnson says it’s great to be out at this location that Wyffels has set up right next to the corn fields at the Cummings family farm.
“It’s a great venue. As a presenter, you always like to get in front of a crowd. Rarely are they 500 and never are they in a tent, air-conditioned with a backdrop of corn with lights projecting up on the corn plants. It’s a fun venue.”
Hello from Malcom, Iowa, where I’m spending the day with the good folks from Wyffels Hybrids, who are putting on Corn Strategies 2010. This gathering is expected to draw about 600 corn farmers from throughout the area, especially Eastern Iowa, where they will get to see and hear more about this independent company… a company where you can still talk to the owners and plan how to best approach the next planting season. While it might seem early to think about next year’s season, this is the time when many farmers are planning their strategy.
In the video below, you’ll get to hear from Matt Barnard, the coordinator for Wyffels Corn Strategies, talk a little bit about what it takes to pull off an event like this.
The day’s events are just getting underway, so if you’d like to come out, just turn north of I-80 at the U.S. Highway 63 exit, go through the small town of Malcom and turn right (east) at 400th Street, just north of town. You can’t miss the big white tent! See you here!
The Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame is a new program intended to honor the most innovative and influential individuals in the cattle-feeding business. The hall announced its 2010 inductees — the late Kenny Monfort of Colorado and H.C. (Ladd) Hitch of Hitch Enterprises based in Oklahoma.
Erin Snyder of Bozeman, Mont., has been selected as the recipient of the $1,500 Sheep Heritage Foundation Memorial Scholarship being offered through the American Sheep Industry Association.
Valent U.S.A. Corporation has received EPA approval for aerial applications of Belay Insecticide in soybeans.
CropLife America welcomes Rebeckah Adcock as senior director of government affairs, following two years as Counsel on the staff of the United States Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee.
It’s a beautiful day in the Sunshine State and hopefully will be a calm one on the Gulf of Mexico. I’m taking a day for a little fishing before things get busy on the agriblogging highway which will start in Panama City tomorrow at the Southern Peanut Growers Conference. This is the view from the deck here of a little canal that leads right out to the Gulf.
If we’re successful you can count on a fish photo. I don’t want to jinx anything but even a bad day on the water beats a good day in the . . .
The trade show is always one of the really cool things about conferences, and I found a pretty neat little item over at the Leica Geosystems booth in the exhibitor’s hall.
Leica is introducing its new mojoMINI, an on-the-go guidance system for in the field and on the road.
Daryl Southard, an inside sales rep for Leica, gave me a quick demonstration of the product in the video below:
The folks attending the 10th International Conference on Precision Agriculture (ICPA) have elected the first officers for the International Society of Precision Agriculture. During the opening day’s luncheon, attendees used remote controls (fitting for a group of folks into precision things!) to choose from the nominees for the four posts.
The winners are:
ISPA President: Dr. Raj Khosla, Professor of Precision Agriculture, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
ISPA President-elect: Dr. John Stafford, a consultant in Precision Agriculture and Computing for Silsoe-Solutions Inc. in the United Kingdom
ISPA Secretary: Dr. Nicolas Tremblay, Plant Nutrition and Crop Management Specialist at the Horticultural R&D Center, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Quebec
ISPA Treasurer: Dr. Angela Guidry, Soil Services Manager/Field Scientist, SGS North America, Brookings, SD
Congratulations and good luck taking precision agriculture forward!
This morning’s opening session of the 10th International Conference on Precision Agriculture (ICPA) was certainly a good one, as attendees heard that while the world’s farmers have increased the rate of growth of the food they produce, the current increase doesn’t match the rise in the human population and its rising incomes expected by the year 2050 when it’s expected that we’ll share this world with 9.2 billion people.
Dr. Ken Cassman with the University of Nebraska’s Center for Energy Sciences Research told the standing-room-only crowd that without negatively impacting some of the world’s most sensitive ecosystems – the rain forests, wetlands, and grassland savannahs – the current rate of production growth won’t meet the rising demand. He says a process of increasing yields and reducing agriculture’s “footprint” is necessary: a process he calls “ecological intensification (EI).” And he believes precision agriculture could play a key role in that process.
“The buffer between proper management and poor management narrows, that is, the margin for error becomes smaller in terms of what helps the crop or what hurts the crop. So your precision of management becomes the single most important factor in helping farmers achieve yields near the yield potential ceiling.”
Cassman says the goal is to achieve 80 percent of a crop’s genetic yield potential while not increasing the impact that crop has on the environment. He says while biotechnology might help get us there, there is no magic bullet. It will take a combination of new technologies and techniques to hit that potential.
And a man who shared the stage with Cassman during the opening session believes we cannot play down the importance of testing and monitoring of fields to make sure the crops are living up to their potential. Dr. William Raun with Oklahoma State University also made a pitch for funding of extension services so that testing can take place.
“Extension is obviously important to us. We cannot just do research. We’ve got to have thousands of enrich strips and ramps out there in the fields and investing in that extension so farmers can see it.” And he adds that the numbers and formulas are out there to best forecast what can happen in a field. We just need to make sure it’s measured. “Yield potential can be predicted.”
It really was a great session. Because of the length of it, I can’t post all of the audio here, but I am going to let you hear the question and answer session after Cassman’s and Raun’s presentation. You’ll also hear from Dr. Raj Khosla during this segment. You can download or listen to this session at ICPA here: Opening Session Questions and Answers
On Sunday, Regan Smith’s Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet will be paying tribute to the American farmer and rancher at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a paint scheme and program promoting the importance of U.S. agriculture. Known as the No. 78 Farm American Chevrolet, the multicolored car of green, yellow, blue and white will depict farm life on the hood along with the program theme on the rear quarter panel of ‘Cultivating the Future’.
Barney Visser, team owner and chief executive officer of Furniture Row Companies, compares what has happened in the furniture industry to the threats facing the American farmer and rancher.
“The number of job losses in the American furniture industry due to unfair competitive practices by international governments has been devastating,” stated Visser. “To see the same trends occurring in our food supply, leaving us subjected to possible interruptions and unequal standards is something we see as worth fighting for.
“I don’t want America to fall asleep on this issue – this is where America needs to come together. I believe in the free market system, but we’re not free when we ask our farmers and ranchers to compete against foreign governments and potentially harmful standards that put us and our families at risk.”
The United Soybean Board (USB) is the only other sponsor to jump into a partnership with the Farm American car at this time. Furniture Row Racing is hoping other suppliers and industry organizations will help share in the support for this team.
Until then, Furniture Row Companies will be underwriting a majority of the Farm American sponsorship at Indianapolis and also at two additional Sprint Cup races – Aug. 21 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and Oct. 10 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.
“The United Soybean Board and soybean checkoff applaud Furniture Row Racing’s efforts to help protect farmers, ranchers and our food supply,” said USB Director Keith Dunn, a soybean farmer from Yale, Va. “By partnering with the Farm American car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway — the heart of the soybean belt — we can inform racing fans of the major role U.S. soy and other U.S. agricultural products play in helping provide our nation’s families with a safe, sustainable and reliable supply of food.”
On a work tour of Canada a few years back, we drove the countryside and it was filled with fields of yellow…canola. To the local Canadian attendees, it was boring, the usual, and what they really wanted to see were the test plots of field corn. Corn? But I guess I can’t blame them. There’s something about a beautiful field of green with tassels that reach to the sky and ears of golden corn that remind a person of home. (At least this ol’ Nebraska girl thinks of home.)
You see, I’ve never actually been lost in a field of corn, in the literal sense of the word. And from what I hear, I don’t want to be. But if you walk in about five rows, you can hear the breeze as it flows through the leaves and it’s almost like the field is telling a story about agriculture and the land. So in a misty-eyed, sentimental sense of the word, being “lost” in a field of corn does feel a little like home.
Maybe corn is what led me to a career in agriculture. When I work, I feel as though I’m supporting the community that helped raise me, supporting all of those farmers and ranchers who know what it’s like to enjoy feeling lost as they look at their crops in the field. And now I understand why my father gets a little depressed each fall when the fields are barren and the combine is in the shed.
In the exhibitor hall, I met up with Harlan Little, Leica’s North American Business Manager. He says for a company that works so closely with precision ag systems, it’s absolutely important to have a presence here.
“The biggest part of it is to have our booth here at the trade show to be able to make sure that all the practitioners that are here at the show, along with the researchers and different people from the industry, all have a chance to see and touch what Leica is all about from an ag standpoint.” Little says Leica is fairly new into the ag market, and a show with this caliber of attendee is a must for his company.
He says they’ve been showing off their tried and true mojoRTK system, as well as the new mojo3D, a seven-inch, touch-screen control unit, that can be used for manual or automated steering.
While there are some producers here at the conference, most of the attendees are from the research and academic fields, and Little is happy to talk to them as well.
“A symposium like this really gives that academia a little bit of what’s the real world capability out there and keeping it grounded as to what the next research piece needs to be.”
Little is glad to be able to make reconnections with some old friends, as well as all the new ones they are making.
You can hear more of my conversation with Harlan, by listening to it or downloading it from the player here: Harlan Little, Leica Geosystems
ZimmComm will be blogging the Southern Peanut Growers Conference once again this year in Panama City Beach, FL. Cindy has “owned” this job for the last couple years but not this year. I get the tough duty of heading to my home state to blog about all things peanuts.
I’m taking a slight detour along the way to a Gulf fishing spot a little south of there with Gary Cooper, Southeast AgNet (ZimmComm client). I’m hoping for good weather and some awesome photos in the sunshine!
There’s a new social network for agriculture and they want you to get in the loop, the AgLoop.
Zachary Brown may still be in college but he’s already got a full time job going thanks to his Dad, James Brown. Together they started Hay Talk a couple of years ago and it has done so well that they’ve branched out with Ranching Forums, TractorFocus, Row Crop Talk and have plans for several more including the one they just announced which is AgLoop. Sounds like enough to keep two guys busy! By the way, to stay busy in his spare time Zachary also manages AgDesign, website development for farmers.
AgLoop is part of the AgBoards family of online farm forums. Zachary says they believe the sense of “community” created by these forums make them a great place for agribusinesses to connect with their customers. I couldn’t agree more. It’s all part of the online conversations that new and social media have made possible. You can follow them on Twitter.
Here’s some more information about AgLoop:
AgLoop has been compared to the Facebook of Agriculture and provides you with an opportunity to create an in depth profile of yourself or your business.
AgLoop provides you a place not to just chat anonymously, but build personal and professional connections that can be invaluable to you in the future.
AgLoop is a different beast compared to our other sites at AgBoards, but one that we believe could revolutionize the way the agriculture industry and community uses the web.
At AgLoop, you can:
* Create and maintain your very own blog
* Upload photos and videos
* Create polls
* Chat in our chat room and forums
* Submit your website to our FREE web directory
* Update your Facebook and Twitter from AgLoop!
* Create or join a group/association for your favorite company, cause, or just for fun
* Find and post events that are going on in your area (and promote your favorite event for free)
* Browse using our iPhone app (Coming very, very soon)
* Generate sales and leads for your business
* Make valuable connections – professional and personal
* And more!
The program ends this week with Social Trend by HAF from Music Alley.
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.
I don’t know what I expected after all the horror stories in the news about the Gulf oil spill but it wasn’t crowded immaculate white beach here in Panama City Beach. But that’s what we’ve got as the 12th Annual Southern Peanut Growers Conference gets underway. No oil marring the coastline here. I drove along Hwy. 98 coming in from the east and that’s the way all the beaches looked in that direction although I did see some colorful booms out in the water in a few places. Maybe they’re there just in case.
Vilsack offered the most contrite, nearly pathetic, apology that I have ever seen from a public official for firing Georgia USDA official Shirley Sherrod. It was actually refreshing to hear someone in such a high position be so totally and profoundly apologetic for his actions. He took full responsibility and did not put blame on anyone else – not the White House, not the media, not the “tea party blogger” who first put the video out there accusing Sherrod of black against white racism. Good for him.
You may recall the 
ZimmComm will be blogging the 
There’s a new social network for agriculture and they want you to get in the loop, the 
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
