EMD Crop BioScience is introducing Ratchet for the 2011 growing season, providing corn and soybean growers with an easy-to-use foliar product that taps into the breakthrough performance advantages of LCO (Lipo-chitooligosaccharide) Promoter Technology.
Pioneer Hi-Bred has announced that it has received approval of Optimum IntrasectM insect protection allowing corn growers in the United States and Canada to significantly reduce their structured above-ground refuge.
Early registration is now open for the Animal Agriculture Alliance’s annual Stakeholders Summit. Celebrate the 10th anniversary of this unique educational event by joining other food and feed industry leaders in Arlington, VA on May 5-6 to explore the theme: “United We Eat: Securing Animal Agriculture’s Future”.
Syngenta Seeds announced today it has received full deregulation from USDA for corn amylase (Event 3272), the first corn output trait designed to help ethanol industry become more efficient, profitable and environmentally friendly.
Syngenta Seeds plans to sell corn containing Event 3272 under the “Enogen” seed brand. “Enogen corn is a breakthrough product that provides ethanol producers a proven means to create more value per gallon while offering targeted corn growers an opportunity to cultivate a premium specialty crop in a contracted, closed production system,” said David Morgan, president of Syngenta Seeds. “Also, Enogen corn can substantially reduce the energy and water consumed and the carbon emissions associated with ethanol production.”
“Corn amylase is the first processing output trait to be scrutinized by our regulatory system,” said NCGA president Bart Schott, a grower from North Dakota. “The potential importance of output traits to growers and industry will only increase as other output traits are developed.”
Corn amylase is approved in Japan, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan, and the Philippines. Amylase was found to be safe for food and feed by the Food and Drug Administration in 2007.
Implementing legislation aimed a reforming Wall Street could have an impact on farmer cooperatives.
As the Commodities Futures Trading Corporation (CFTC) implements provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act involving over the counter (OTC) derivatives, the Commission must ensure that farmer co-ops can continue to effectively manage risk and offer hedging tools to their farmer-owners, a representative of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC) said during a hearing in Washington this week.
The comments were made by Ed Gallagher, president of Dairy Risk Management Services, a division of Dairy Farmers of America, and vice president of risk management for Dairylea Cooperative, at a House Committee on Agriculture hearing looking at implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
“Due to market volatility in recent years, cooperatives are increasingly using OTC products to help them diversify their exposure by customizing their hedges,” Gallagher testified. “In addition, OTC derivatives offer cooperatives the ability to provide specialized products to farmers and ranchers to help them better manage their risk and returns. A co-op can aggregate its owner-members’ small volume hedges or forward contracts and offset that risk with a futures contract or by entering into another customized hedge via the swaps market.”
For an example, Gallagher discussed the ways in which his co-op helps their dairy farmer members hedge against increases in feed prices. Without the co-op involvement, he emphasized, individual producers would be unable to mitigate this risk effectively.
“Many producers are not able to use the futures markets to hedge input risk because of the larger volumes underlying the relevant futures contracts,” Gallagher said in his written testimony. “Furthermore, corn and soybean contracts do not trade on a monthly basis—while most of our members purchase feed on a monthly basis.”
A wide variety of farmer co-ops, including those in the grain and livestock sectors, use OTC derivatives to offer similar products.
AgWired ZimmPoll sponsor, Rhea + Kaiser, has just added almost a dozen new folks to the team in the areas of account services, public relations, media and project management. The expansion follows the agency’s acquisition of new clients and expanding partnerships with several current clients.
“We’re always looking for great people who have the critical strategic focus needed for our success and the success of our clients,” said Diane Martin, CEO of Rhea + Kaiser. “We’re pleased work is steadily increasing enabling us to attract individuals who are smart and passionate about what we do and about our clients’ businesses.”
Recent great additions to the R+K team include: Jayma Appleby, senior account executive, PR; Kim Berns, senior account executive; Diane Chastain, project management lead; Sarah Galdi, assistant account executive; Karen Harley, media buyer; Greg Lammert, senior account supervisor, PR; Christina Leggio, media accountant; Marcy Miller, senior media planner; Stephen Samelko, account executive; Rebecca Silva, assistant account executive; and William Rongey, senior account executive.
“We’re optimistic about 2011,” said Martin. “We have great clients who value the thinking our teams are bringing to the table and who are empowering us to do great work on their behalf.”
In addition to the new hires above, there are several open positions still waiting to be filled. Interested? Check out http://www.rkconnect.com/Careers.aspx.
We always ask, “What’s new?” when conducting interviews and during the recent International Poultry Expo, our sponsor, Novus International had some news.
I spoke with Jared about DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid. He calls it the king of the omega-3 fatty acids. Besides being very healthy for humans it also is for poultry. It helps promote growth and the nutritional value of eggs and meat. According to Jared the “new” comes in with their product TREVERA. This is an algae based omega-3 DHA which they just launched. He says you can find omega-3 eggs in the grocery store now and that you should look for ones that say DHA.
Apps for trade shows and conferences are becoming more and more popular. The next one I’ll be using is the National Ethanol Conference App in Phoenix.
* Get 24 hour access to unique, on-the-go information, maps and networking.
* Organize your schedule.
* Navigate using the conference map.
* Stay in the know with important alerts and the most up-to-date event schedule.
* Download speaker and sponsor information.
Download the App! It’s FREE.
Instructions:
For iPhones, iPod Touch and iPad: From your phone, visit the App Store and search for NEC 2011.
For Blackberry, Droid and all other smartphones: From your phone, point your mobile browser to http://m.core-apps.com/nec2011 (the system will determine your phone type for proper download for your device). Then bookmark this page on your phone for easy future access.
The Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection is inviting Wisconsin dairy producers who are interested in serving the state’s dairy industry and shaping its future to serve as a director on the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.
The Sorghum Checkoff announces the release of three online sorghum profitability calculators (found under the ‘sorghum production’ tab) that allow sorghum growers to determine the value sorghum can offer their operation.
The National FFA Organization is now accepting applications for its 2011 New Century Farmer conference to be held July 24-30 in Johnston, Iowa.
The exclusive, highly competitive conference is open to college of agriculture students who intend to pursue careers in production agriculture after college. Those selected to attend the conference will be among the first in the nation to learn about the latest technological developments in the agriculture industry, and will receive business management advice from top industry leaders. The program will also help students begin to develop a nationwide network of industry professionals and colleagues to whom they can turn for support when they begin their own operations.
The deadline for applications is March15. Only 50 students will be selected to participate. Potential participants can learn more about the program and download an application at www.ffa.org/collegiate.
The conference is sponsored by Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business; Rabo AgriFinance; Case IH; and CSX Cooperation; as a special project of the National FFA Foundation. Successful Farming is a media partner of the conference.
Drake & Company has been adding to the staff as growth continues. The newest additions are Kathy Meyer and Teresa Lee.
Meyer started with DrakeCo on Jan. 10 as a Content Management Specialist. She will be responsible for writing, editing and distributing editorial content such as print articles, blog posts, e-newsletters and more for clients including the Dairy Calf & Heifer Association, International Fruit Tree Association and National Christmas Tree Association.
She brings more than 20 years of experience in PR, advertising and publishing. Her assignments have included Monsanto Company, DuPont Crop Protection, Pfizer Animal Health, the American Hereford Association and MFA Incorporated. Her extensive skills include strategic planning, media relations, special events, association sponsorships, crisis management, writing, editing and publishing.
Lee started with DrakeCo on Jan. 24. She will serve as executive director of Alpha Zeta, a 114-year-old honorary fraternity for agriculture and natural resources professionals, as well as assistant executive director for the Dairy Calf & Heifer Association. She will also work with the newly formed U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance, an unprecedented collaborative effort of more than 20 agricultural commodity organizations.
Lee brings 18 years of communications, marketing and administrative experience in both the association and corporate sectors to DrakeCo. She has worked with agricultural commodity and finance organizations as well as in the agricultural equipment and poultry industries.
The World Agriculture Investment Conference 2011 in Chicago is drawing closer and the organizers have been working with Henry Wilkes at InvestAg Savills to bring you the “International Farmland Market Bulletin 2011”
InvestAg Savill’s “International Farmland Market Bulletin 2011” provides an interesting overview of international values and farmland as an asset class – it’s available to download here.
Henry Wilkes, CEO, Invest AG Savills will join the Ag Invest meeting’s foremost speaker panel in Chicago in May 9-10. In the timely discussion, Henry will provide a global perspective on agriculture investment strategies and regional land markets.
Following months of research, this forum has been designed specifically to help investors to walk away with the practical information and contacts needed to make an appropriate choice based on varying risk tolerances and return objectives.
This is a truly unique chance to network with key investors, hedge funds and Ag managers, and to effortlessly discover how best to develop the ideal Ag portfolio.
For additional information, registration assistance or questions, please contact George Kiley, Investment Director – World Agriculture Investment Series by email on gkiley@aginvestconference.com, or call on +44(0)207 3757 54
Not only are we seeing more ag apps for mobile phones and tablets but we’re now seeing accessories for the devices too. This just came in from OtterBox.
The agriculture industry is making the shift from clipboards to handheld technology – mobile devices such as iPhones and iPads are more popularly used in feed lots, crop fields and meat plants to improve work efficiency. For rugged protection, OtterBox® offers a Defender Series® case to accommodate the iPhone® 4 on both the Verizon Wireless and AT&T networks. For convenient carrying and usability, OtterBox also introduces an accessory as part of the new Utility Series™ line of products. Now available, the Latch™ for iPad™. Read more in the press releases below.
Apple Addiction Spreads to Verizon: OtterBox Protects All iPhone 4 Users Read more
OtterBox Unveils Utility Series, Introducing the Latch for Apple iPad Read more
“We’re excited to bring these two innovative companies together to help farmers produce more and better food, feed, fuel, and fiber while minimizing the environmental footprint,” says Thomas Videbæk, Executive Vice President of Novozymes.
Novozymes purchased the company because it felt it complemented it’s existing biological business. They believe that this acquisition will accelerate the development of new products and better meet farmers’ current and future needs for sustainable solutions.
“With the wider range of expertise and greater capacity for research and development, we’ll be able to introduce new products into the market quicker than before,” said Videbæk. “The acquisition expands our business reach, enabling us to deliver more value to more farmers globally.”
This week’s ZimmCast is with our good friend Mike Deering, Communications Director for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. We spent most of last week with Mike at the Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show in Denver, but he was too busy to do an interview there so I had to catch up with him over the phone after we got back.
We got to know Mike when he was with the U.S. Grains Council and have been very impressed with his media savvy, especially for such a young guy. He’s not yet 30 years old, but he really “gets it” when it comes to working with media of all types and using social media to communicate with membership and the general public. He is a tireless ball of energy, and along with his communications colleague Mary Geiger they turn out an amazing amount of content for NCBA.
When he went to work for NCBA last May, one of the first things he did was start the Beltway Beef blog for the organization, which has become a brand to identify the cattle organization’s work on behalf of producers.
Mike is also a darn good amateur auctioneer, as we found out at the convention when he worked the mic for the NCBA PAC auction during the second general session. I re-posted the video of him auctioneering below.
I think I mentioned recently that I still had some interviews to share from the International Poultry Expo with our long time and much appreciated sponsor, Novus International. It has been a very busy time going from Poultry Expo to a blizzard at home, the Cattle Industry Convention and then the National Biodiesel Conference! Now it’s catch up time and I want to start by sharing this interview with Andres Montoya, Product Development Manager, Poultry. He was right at home in Georgia where he’s based. I wasn’t the only one interviewing him as you can see in the photo.
We got started right away with the “what’s new?” question. What’s new is Activate.
ACTIVATE® nutritional feed acid is a combination of Gut Environment Modifiers and HMTBa. ACTIVATE is used for Salmonella reduction programs and as an alternative to antibiotics in vaccination windows and withdrawal diets.
Syngenta announced that the National Biosafety Committee (CTNBio) in Brazil has approved its triple corn stack Bt11 x MIR162 x GA21 for cultivation in the country.
As an Official Partner of NASCAR, the National Corn Growers Association will leverage its relationship to spread the message to NASCAR fans around the country about the role American farmers play in the development of ethanol.
Lucas Sjostrom joins Hoard’s Dairyman magazine as an associate editor beginning on Monday, Feb. 14.
Watch the CLAAS 760TT combine, sporting a 16 row head, combine 270 acres in 10 hours.
It looks like there’s a very high expectation among our various audiences that commodity prices will go higher. You haven’t sold all of last year’s soybeans have you! We asked the question, “Will commodity prices be higher or lower a year from now?” Overwhelmingly, 70% said higher while 21% said about the same and only 9% lower.
Our next ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “What smartphone platform do you use” The Apple iPhone is now available from Verizon. I wonder if this will change things. Let us know and thank you for participating.
ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.
Cattle producers around the country have been busy this winter trying to care for their animals in particularly harsh weather.
Ice, snow and freezing temperatures mean lots of extra work to feed and water cattle and there were lots of producers who were unable to make the trip to Denver last week for the Cattle Industry Convention because of that. There have even been reports of barns collapsing and killing cattle. USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) officials are reminding livestock producers throughout the Plains states and the Midwest that FSA programs may be available to assist them.
“This is turning out to be a tough winter for many ranchers and farmers in the nation’s heartland, and learning about our FSA programs is an important step for producers to take,” FSA Administrator Jonathan Coppess said in a release last week. “We need producers to document the number and kind of livestock that have died as a direct result of these winter storms and timely notify their local FSA office of these losses. There may be situations where producers are transporting feed to their livestock. Producers should document these additional costs.”
FSA administers several programs that help producers recover from livestock deaths that are beyond normal mortality rates, losses of purchased and/or harvested forage, and with the additional costs of providing or transporting feed.
Here in mid Missouri, we still have a foot or more of snow in some areas after last week’s storm that dumped about 20 inches. The photo is from Brownfield Network’s Cyndi Young-Puyear who has a cow-calf operation with her husband Jim not far from the state capitol. She’s really proud of her little black and white striped calf and she reports on Facebook that the snow hasn’t slowed little “Oreo Speedwagon” down a bit!
Grain bin accidents and fatalities on the farm have been on the increase in recent years, but more attention to some simple safety rules could reverse that trend.
The two organizations teamed up in November to develop the video in response to an increase in U.S. fatalities and injuries associated with entry into grain bins.
“In 2010 we saw a record number of farmers becoming engulfed in grain bins and we decided it was time to have a proactive role in creating awareness about the serious nature of this issue,” NCGA President Bart Schott, a grower from Kulm, N.D., said. “We hope that this video makes farmers stop and think twice before the next time they put themselves in danger.”
The new video, shot on location in several states, provides a wide range of information from prevention tips and background data on grain bin accidents. The project also involved interviews with professionals in the fields of grain bin safety research and rescue to provide as much information to viewers as possible.
The video is available at NCGA.com and on NCGA’s YouTube channel and is also being distributed by NCGA to affiliated farm organizations. The NGFA also has made the video available on its website at www.ngfa.org, and will be encouraging its grain elevator members to distribute it to farmer-customers.
Successful Farming magazine has promoted Curt Blades to national sales manager. In his new role, he will oversee and lead all advertising sales initiatives and research activities for the Successful Farming brands, including Agriculture.com and the Successful Farming Machinery Show. He was previously the sales and marketing manager with Successful Farming.
“Curt has a proven track record of providing exceptional customer service and helping bring creative solutions to our marketing partners,” said Scott Mortimer, publisher of Successful Farming. “I am very pleased to announce his promotion and look forward to him leading all advertising efforts at Successful Farming.” Blades will also continue to oversee the research efforts of Successful Farming, and the new database venture SFMiD.
“We will continue to be the most customer-oriented advertising sales and marketing team in agriculture,” said Blades. “I am thrilled to be given the opportunity to serve our customers and internal team in this new position.”
As Chuck mentioned in a previous post, Curt started off his career in the agribusiness world as an intern with us at Brownfield Network – many, many moons ago. But, while we keep getting older, he still looks like that fresh-faced college kid to me!
GROWMARK is a multi-layered cooperative with five wholly or partially-owned subsidiaries, six retail subsidiary divisions, and controlling interests in several related endeavors – all aimed at improving the profitability of its member-owners. As part of our series on getting to know GROWMARK, we’re getting to know not just the company, but the people who make it all happen.
MID-CO COMMODITIES is a GROWMARK subsidiary that offers professional price-risk management services for all agricultural commodities, including market information analyzed by experienced commodity risk consultants, as well as providing futures and options execution on major exchanges.
Bryce Stremming is one of MID-CO’s Commodity Risk Consultants. “What MID-CO keys on is basis trading within the grain industry and as the market moves up and down, you have different opportunities with the basis on whether it is improving or not,” Bryce told Agwired during a recent interview.
Bryce says what is most important to him is what his customers want and need at any particular point in time. “What is their risk tolerance, what are they looking for, and making sure that we tailor our recommendations to what their comfort level is,” he says. “MID-CO views each customer as an individual and we always do what is in the best interest of the customer.”
Get to know MID-CO, GROWMARK and Bryce a little better by listening to Chuck’s interview here: Bryce Stremming Interview
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.
The 
As the Commodities Futures Trading Corporation (CFTC) implements provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act involving over the counter (OTC) derivatives, the Commission must ensure that farmer co-ops can continue to effectively manage risk and offer hedging tools to their farmer-owners, a representative of the 
AgWired ZimmPoll sponsor, 
We always ask, “What’s new?” when conducting interviews and during the recent International Poultry Expo, our sponsor, Novus International had some news.
The 
This week’s ZimmCast is with our good friend Mike Deering, Communications Director for the 
When he went to work for NCBA last May, one of the first things he did was start the 
I think I mentioned recently that I still had some interviews to share from the International Poultry Expo with our long time and much appreciated sponsor, 
Ice, snow and freezing temperatures mean lots of extra work to feed and water cattle and there were lots of producers who were unable to make the trip to Denver last week for the 
Bryce Stremming is one of MID-CO’s Commodity Risk Consultants. “What MID-CO keys on is basis trading within the grain industry and as the market moves up and down, you have different opportunities with the basis on whether it is improving or not,” Bryce told Agwired during a recent interview.
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
