During the National Ag Day banquet I met one of our sponsors for Ag Day coverage, Andy Lavigne, American Seed Trade Association.
Andy says ASTA is 127 years old and was started by seed companies to promote high quality seed. Member companies produce seed from alfalfa to zucchini and everything in between. If it can be grown from a seed, that’s what their members produce. That makes for a wide variety of companies. They work on legislative matters for their members to try to keep regulations from becoming too burdensome and to make sure there are seed variety options for growers. They do this by working with grower groups and the food industry.
I asked him to describe the current legislative climate and what the key issues ASTA will be working on this year. He says it’s an interesting time and right now agriculture is doing very well. But the challenge will be with Congress and the pressure to reduce spending. He says they are helping make sure agriculture is at the table when the negotiating is going on.
The top priority for ASTA is working with the grower community to make sure there is a viable farm bill. It’s not just because there are a couple of items that have a direct impact on seed production but because it’s so important to their customers.
The winners of the National Ag Day Essay Contest have been announced. There are two of them, one for a written entry and one for a video entry. In the photo is written essay winner Nora Faris, Concordia, Missouri with Dr. John Bonner, Chair of Ag Council of America who presented her with her check during the National Ag Day banquet. Nora also read us her winning entry which you can read on the Ag Day website: Nora Faris Essay
The video winner is Kyle Trevino, Madera, California:
“Bury Derry Day” was a day of mixed emotions for family, friends and fans who attended his funeral and celebration of life Wednesday in California, Missouri. There were many tears, but I would say that most of them were tears of laughter remembering Derry Brownfield’s life. I have not laughed so hard in a long time listening to his oldest son Jay (who looks just like him!) relate stories about Derry through the years.
Missourinet news director Bob Priddy, who knew Derry for over 40 years, did the eulogy at the funeral, concentrating on Derry’s early years in radio at KLIK in Jefferson City where they worked together. One especially entertaining story was about a practical joke that fellow news guys at KLIK played on Derry. One day on the air, Derry had taken to task the Secretary of Agriculture at the time over something he had done or said that Derry disagreed with. A couple of the KLIK guys decided to have some fun by tampering with the UPI newswire in the news room, taking some of the continuous feed paper and typing up a bogus story saying that the ag secretary was upset over the critical comments made by a “certain Midwest farm broadcaster.” Derry came in the next morning, went through the wire copy, found the story and felt he should report it and respond to it during his next broadcast. The jokers didn’t tell him the truth until he was just about ready to go on the air with it. Not often that Derry was had – but that was funny!
It is so appropriate that Derry’s life was celebrated this week during National Agriculture Week, since he spent his life speaking as a farmer, to the farmer, for the farmer, from the farm. Congressman Rick Crawford (R-AR) even devoted a moment on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to remember Derry. “His vision and passion for informing and educating rural America was unparalleled and an inspiration to the farmers and farm broadcasters he influenced,” Crawford said. “We can take what Derry taught us and honor his legacy by continuing the tradition of quality agricultural reporting.”
The Chairman of the Agriculture Council of America is Dr. John Bonner, CAST. During National Ag Day activities he was busy and had the pleasure to introduce the Essay Content winners. I’ll more on that in my next post. I spoke with him about ACA and Ag Day.
John says that ACA is having a great year and points out that all week is “ag week and all year is ag year.” He says that the events of National Ag Day bring in a lot of students who have been making visits with elected officials. I interviewed several of them and will be sharing those soon. John says that Ag Day is very important as a method to help educate the public about American agriculture. He also mentioned a new paper that was published this week by the Council for Agriculture Science and Technology that examines the importance of agricultural research. With all the talk about budget cutting in Washington, DC, that seems to be a timely publication. You can find it on the CAST website.
It looks like Facebook is the big dog in the social media world according to you. Our last ZimmPoll asked the question, “Which social network do you use the most.” A majority say Facebook, 64%, followed by Twitter, 16%, YouTube, 8%, Linkedin, 5%, Other, 5%, Classmates.com, 1%, Flickr, !% and MySpace, 0%. I can’t remember when I’ve checked my MySpace account either.
Our next ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, “When will planting season start this year?” It’s that time now that we’re in Ag Week with spring just around the corner! Let us know what you think and thank you for participating.
ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.
Our family farming operation bleeds green. To any John Deere lover, you know what I mean. The tractors today are bigger, have more horsepower, more options and enable growers to accomplish so much more in a short amount of time. It wasn’t always so.
The top photo is a Mogul 8-16 breaking sod on our family’s farm in the early 1900s. This was McCormick’s (International Harvester) first attempt at a smaller tractor and was manufactured in 1915. It had one forward and reverse speed: 1.5 miles per hour.
The middle photo is a Titan 10-20, also an International Harvester, and was also built in about 1915. It had a maximum speed of 3 miles per hour. My grandmother’s family used this tractor to harrow 70 acres per day. (Brand new, the price was $950.)
Both the Mogul and the Titan ran on kerosene.
The bottom photo is a Farmall … my great grandfather’s first tractor he purchased in 1929.
Today’s equipment is built to cover more ground, more efficiently, in an effort to provide food for a growing domestic and world population. Just remember – bigger doesn’t mean ‘corporate’. It just means there’s a farmer out there working long hours, farming more acres, so that you can go to the grocery store and buy affordable, healthy food for your family. Farmers today just have more mouths to feed.
Farm Journal Media recently received the Grand Neal Award, which recognized the service and multimedia strength of the Farm Journal Legacy Project.
Chris Nelson, Pete Holman, Bill Freeman and Col. Randy Baxley have joined forces to form Roundup Internet Livestock Marketing, based in Visalia, Calif.
The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service and the National FFA organization announce the availability of classroom-ready resources aligned with national curricula standards for science, math and social studies. The free materials are available online via the NASS website and the FFA Learning Center.
American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology (AFACT) have scheduled a series of free webinars for producers and veterinarians, designed to provide specific steps that can be taken on the farm to insure appropriate use of animal health products.
At the National Ag Day dinner in Washington, DC our keynote speaker was USDA Under Secretary Michael Scuse. He welcomed us to this day of celebration.
He starts out describing his support of ariculture today by saying, “Our farmers and ranchers are the best in the world, bar none.” He has a lot of statistics that show how well American farmers have done in recent years. It’s time to remind people you know to thank a farmer.
We’ve got youth in agriculture here at National Ag Day from just about every organization you can think of including the FFA. Introducing our lunch speaker today was Victor Salazar, Connecticut FFA state president. He was introduced by Orion Samuelson and I’m thinking that alone made an impression on him. But then it was his turn to do the introduction and he did an awesome job. I’ve got his intro on the audio file you can listen to below.
U.S. Representative Frank Lucas (R-OK), Chairman of the House Ag Committee, thanked, “Mr. President,” which got a good chuckle since we were in the Capitol Bldg. He says the last time he came in third in a political contest was for FFA Reporter in Oklahoma once upon a time. He then talked farm bill and budget and says it’s going to be a tough year. He asked everyone to help educate members of the House who may not fully understand the business of agriculture.
The man with the voice no one will forget, Orion Samuelson, WGN, emceed the National Ag Day Mix & Mingle Luncheon today. I spoke with Orion before the program got started to get his thoughts on Ag Day and learn what we’ll be doing this celebrate American agriculture day.
Orion says that we’ve had Labor Day to honor labor in the fall forever and now in just the last 30 years we have a day to kick of the spring that celebrates those who work on our farms. Attendance here is at an all time high. It’s very appropriate that we’re having three meal time functions! After all we’re honoring those who put food on our table as well as on our backs and in our cars.
I now have a photo album started with all my luncheon photos. Thanks to the USDA “internet man” for his help! I’ll add to the album after tonight’s dinner too: 2011 National Ag Day Photo Album
AgWired coverage of National Ag Day is sponsored by: and and
I finally made it to Washington, DC but not without missing last night’s Agri-Pulse reception with Michael Peterson. Here’s the Agri-Pulse banner crew in action before the party.
I was able to attend the Mix & Mingle Luncheon and have lots of photos. We’re going to have the big dinner tonight at USDA and I’ll have lots of photos from it as well. I have tried uploading them with both a Verizon Mifi and my iPhone but no luck. Not much in the way of a signal even at the entrance to the building. So, I’m waiting on a USDA IT person to see if I can get on some kind of internal access. Until then, I’m not going to be able to upload anything else.
I have lots of audio and interviews to share and will be featuring them all week as we celebrate American agriculture and the farmers who feed us.
AgWired coverage of National Ag Day is sponsored by: and and
It may sound disrespectful, but our good friend Derry Brownfield always referred to the day of his funeral as “Bury Derry Day” – so that’s what we’re calling it!
The official obituary has been published now in the Jefferson City News Tribune with the important facts of his life distilled into a few short paragraphs. Those who knew him could write a book about him!
But here are the details for visitation and funeral and such:
Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, March 16, 2011, at 11:00 a.m. at California United Church of Christ, California, Mo. Burial will be in California Masonic Cemetery. Visitation will be held on Tuesday, March 15, 2011, from 4:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. at Bowlin-Cantriel Funeral Services, California, Mo. Memorials are suggested to the Gideon’s International, c/o Derry Brownfield, P.O. Box 79, Centertown, MO 65023. Arrangements are under the direction of Bowlin-Cantriel Funeral Services, California, Mo.
I will be there tonight for the visitation. Chuck is hoping to get back from DC early enough tomorrow morning to get to the funeral. We know that many of Derry’s friends and fans will be there – along with his wonderful family. It is sad to know that his voice will no longer be coming out live from a microphone here on Earth, but we will be celebrating the time we had with him and his new life in Heaven this week!
With federal funding for public broadcasting on the chopping block in Washington, programs like “America’s Heartland” need friends more than ever.
Now in its sixth season, the PBS show shares the stories of America’s farmers and ranchers with a sophisticated public television viewing audience and is seeking production funding for its seventh season. To that end, the grassroots “Friends of America’s Heartland” website is offering fans of the award-winning series a way to support it by making donations and encouraging others to do so.
The Friends campaign will supplement the sponsorships already promised for season 7 by the American Farm Bureau Foundation, Farm Credit Services, and the United Soybean Board while additional major funding support is still being sought. America’s Heartland is on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and is produced by KVIE Public Television in Sacramento.
Students are getting a little training today for tomorrow’s National Ag Day activities. I am not there yet. In fact, the snow in Missouri caused my flight to be canceled. However, I’m now scheduled for a late flight out tonight. So I’m going to miss the reception this evening with Michael Peterson.
Someone is taking photos and you can see more of the students in action in this AgDay Photo Album.
AgWired coverage of National Ag Day is sponsored by: and and
Syngenta held a press conference at the recent Commodity Classic to discuss challenges growers have in the upcoming season and the Syngenta commitment to make their R&D investment “local” to the grower. Getting things started was Tracy Mader, head of product marketing for Syngenta Seeds. He asked the ag media how many new technologies they had heard about, seen or product launches they had encountered in the last twelve to twenty four months. I don’t keep count but there has been a lot. He calls it a golden age of opportunity for many growers not only because of commodity prices but also for available technologies. Syngenta had a full team on hand to talk with the media. I was able to record the press conference for your listening pleasure but didn’t have a chance to talk one on one at that time.
BASF and Monsanto are taking their dicamba tolerant cropping system collaboration to the next level.
The two companies today announced a new agreement to “facilitate further development work and subsequent commercialization of a dicamba tolerant system, which includes innovative dicamba formulations proprietary to BASF and the dicamba tolerant trait for soybeans, which is proprietary to Monsanto. The system is expected to be introduced in the United States and Canada in the middle of the decade, pending regulatory approvals.”
“The introduction of dicamba tolerant crops combined with improved dicamba formulations will provide farmers the tools they need to combat the yield-robbing weed resistance some are facing in their fields today,” said Markus Heldt, President of BASF’s Crop Protection division. “Since the introduction of Clarity® in 1992, BASF has continually improved its dicamba offerings. Our next generation products will offer yet another step change in volatility reduction while maintaining the highest level of weed control. The system, along with proper stewardship measures, will ultimately deliver peace of mind for growers.”
“We are committed to providing farmers with the weed management tools they need to be successful,” said Robb Fraley, Monsanto’s chief technology officer. “Our work with BASF brings us one step closer to bringing more improved weed control offerings to farmers. We expect the formulations to be an excellent complement to Monsanto’s dicamba tolerant seed technologies when they are brought to market.”
Upon commercialization, the dicamba tolerance trait is expected to be stacked with the high yielding Genuity® Roundup Ready 2 Yield® soybean trait. Monsanto also has corn, cotton and canola dicamba tolerant crops in its research and development pipeline. These next-generation technologies are aimed at offering farmers multiple modes of action and superior application timing flexibility in combating weeds.
We’ve got a couple of deadlines coming up this Friday. The first one is for entries for the IFAJ-Alltech Young Leaders in Agricultural Journalism Award. Since each country member of IFAJ can nominate a member (that’s AAEA in the USA) you need to get your application in if you would like to be considered.
The award recognizes the leadership potential of young members (35 and younger), and supports their participation at the IFAJ congress through this $1,000 EUR award, designed to help offset travel and registration to Canada, in this case.
Apply by emailing Future Ag Communicators Committee Chair Mindy Williamson (mwilliamson@iowacorn.org) the following:
Name, company, email, phone number (applicants must be no older than 35 as of Dec. 31, 2010)
Three samples of your work
An explanation of why you have leadership potential in agricultural journalism and communications
Another deadline this Friday is early registration for the 2011 Agri-Marketing Conference. So get ready to harvest some ideas in Kansas City, MO in April!
New Breakout Sessions on Sustainability, Animal Welfare and Management
Internationally Known Keynote Speakers to challenge you and share information you can use right away
Outstanding Networking with industry leaders and decision-makers
If you’re responsible for brand identity and market development – and if you want to rub elbows with the movers and shakers in the industry – make plans to join NAMA this April in Kansas City.
You’ll discover how to:
* use proven tactics to affect the behavior of your target audience
* attract and hold on to customers from younger markets with big buying power
* unlock the “seven triggers of fascination” that add a strategic marketing approach to the art of influence
The 2011 NAMA Agri-Marketing Conference is going to take your know-how to the next level.
Here is a totally hilarious, must-see video. It is a vintage promotional film produced by the American Angus Association in the early 1970s called “Your Best Beef Buy,” which shows the importance of selecting for quality when ensuring a satisfying eating experience. The advice is still solid but the 70s fashion and film production techniques make it just funny! Thanks to the American Angus Association for sharing!
Good ol’ Brown Derryfield will be remembered today at 10:00 central time as “The Derry Brownfield Show” will be a memorial to the man who was common sense personified. It’s planned to be the final episode of the talk show which started in 1994.
As Chuck already noted, we’ve known Derry for over 20 years now, having moved from Florida to Missouri to work for him in December of 1991. In fact, it was my idea – along with fellow Learfielder Mike Mayfield – that Derry start the talk show. I just talked with Mike, who is an engineer for Zimmer Radio Group, and found out that ZRG has been working with Derry for the past couple of months on the production and distribution of the talk show. There is still a possibility the show can continue as “The Common Sense Coalition” but that has yet to be decided.
You can listen to the show live from the link on the front page of the show website. Many people, including Chuck, are lined up to give short memories of Derry – as many as they can fit in a one hour show! Here is the embed code from the website – see if it works:
Post Update: It did and now you can listen to the tribute program from the DBS archives: Derry Brownfield Tribute Show
I know there are lots of folks out there who have fond memories of Derry and favorite “Derryisms.” If you would like to share – comment on this post or write on the wall of the DBS Facebook page. My personal favorite of Derry’s sayings was “ignorance gone to seed” but most appropriate now is the way he signed off on every DBS:
“May the good Lord bless and keep you whether near or far away. May the good you wish for others shine on you today. May your heart stay tuned to the music that will cheer the hearts of men. May the good Lord bless and keep you until we meet again.”
Derry’s funeral arrangements are still in the planning stages, but we will let you know as soon as we do.
Post Update:
The arrangements for Derry’s funeral are… Tuesday visitation 4-8 and funeral on Wednesday 11:00 a.m. Bowlin Cantriel Funeral Services in California, MO.
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.
During the National Ag Day banquet I met one of our sponsors for Ag Day coverage, Andy Lavigne, American Seed Trade Association. 
I asked him to describe the current legislative climate and what the key issues ASTA will be working on this year. He says it’s an interesting time and right now agriculture is doing very well. But the challenge will be with Congress and the pressure to reduce spending. He says they are helping make sure agriculture is at the table when the negotiating is going on. 
and 
and 
The winners of the 
“Bury Derry Day” was a day of mixed emotions for family, friends and fans who attended his funeral and celebration of life Wednesday in California, Missouri. There were many tears, but I would say that most of them were tears of laughter remembering Derry Brownfield’s life. I have not laughed so hard in a long time listening to his oldest son Jay (who looks just like him!) relate stories about Derry through the years.
The Chairman of the 
At the National Ag Day dinner in Washington, DC our keynote speaker was USDA Under Secretary Michael Scuse. He welcomed us to this day of celebration.
We’ve got youth in agriculture here at National Ag Day from just about every organization you can think of including the FFA. Introducing our lunch speaker today was Victor Salazar, Connecticut FFA state president. He was introduced by Orion Samuelson and I’m thinking that alone made an impression on him. But then it was his turn to do the introduction and he did an awesome job. I’ve got his intro on the audio file you can listen to below.
U.S. Representative Frank Lucas (R-OK), Chairman of the 
The man with the voice no one will forget, Orion Samuelson, WGN, emceed the National Ag Day Mix & Mingle Luncheon today. I spoke with Orion before the program got started to get his thoughts on Ag Day and learn what we’ll be doing this celebrate American agriculture day.
The official obituary has been 
Now in its sixth season, the PBS show shares the stories of America’s farmers and ranchers with a sophisticated public television viewing audience and is seeking production funding for its seventh season. To that end, the grassroots 
Students are getting a little training today for tomorrow’s National Ag Day activities. I am not there yet. In fact, the snow in Missouri caused my flight to be canceled. However, I’m now scheduled for a late flight out tonight. So I’m going to miss the reception this evening with Michael Peterson.
“The introduction of dicamba tolerant crops combined with improved dicamba formulations will provide farmers the tools they need to combat the yield-robbing weed resistance some are facing in their fields today,” said Markus Heldt, President of BASF’s Crop Protection division. “Since the introduction of Clarity® in 1992, BASF has continually improved its dicamba offerings. Our next generation products will offer yet another step change in volatility reduction while maintaining the highest level of weed control. The system, along with proper stewardship measures, will ultimately deliver peace of mind for growers.”
We’ve got a couple of deadlines coming up this Friday. The first one is for entries for the 
Another deadline this Friday is early registration for the 
Good ol’ Brown Derryfield will be remembered today at 10:00 central time as 
In this week's program Chuck talks with David Armano, Global Innovation and Integration.
