It’s World Pork Expo eve (that’s a holiday, right?), and we’re here in Des Moines, Iowa to keep you up-to-date on all the news from event. This evening as producers, industry leaders and media converge on Central Iowa in anticipation of the next three days of information, I caught up with Cindy Cunningham, Assistant Vice President of Communications with the …
CUTC Encouraging New Uses For Corn
It looks like we have nearly 300 people attending the 2010 Corn Utilization and Technology Conference. I sat down with NCGA President and South Dakota corn farmer, Darrin Ihnen, this morning and we talked about the need for this kind of conference. Darrin says CUTC brings out ideas that are still in the development stage while helping the industry come …
Fluidigm Introduces First Reusable Bio-Chip
Fluidigm Corporation held a joint press conference this morning with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service to announce their new reusable bio-chip architecture which is a first for the commercial market. These reusable integrated fluidic circuits (IFCs) will dramatically lower SNP genotyping costs and are designed to support accelerated sample throughput, while maintaining data quality of 99.75 percent or greater accuracy …
Ag Research Key To New Green Revolution
I previewed the keynote address to open the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference earlier today. Now here’s the full comments from Dr. Gale Buchanan, former USDA Chief Scientist and Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics. Dr. Buchanan was introduced by NCGA President, Darrin Ihnen, and I’m also posting his welcome message. During the next couple days I’ll be doing …
The CUTC Keynote Will Focus On Ag Productivity
This is the welcoming committee here at the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference. Actually, our keynote speaker at this afternoon’s opening general session, Gale Buchanan, former USDA Chief Scientist and Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics, just happened to be registering at the same time I was. Gale is always happy to help anyone so I got a pre-CUTC …
The Antique Tractor Show
Antique tractors are a passion for Michael Hinton. He decided there needed to be a good resource for people who share that passion so he started The Antique Tractor Show. This website is meant to be a place to find information and to enhance the effort he’s teamed up with Frazier Dailey who has Antique Tractors Forum. The Antique Tractor …
Corn Crib Baseball Makes Frontier League Commish Happy
The Commissioner of the Frontier League, Independent Professional Baseball, is Bill Lee. Here’s Bill making some opening remarks prior to the first home game of the Normal CornBelters in the Corn Crib. I spoke to him about this new franchise and what he thinks about the support of Illinois Corn Growers. Bill says it’s a wonderful thing because it’s a …
Corn Crib is Illinois Field of Dreams
It’s definitely a field of dreams, but instead of building a ball field in a corn field, Illinois corn farmers are growing corn in a ball field. As part of the landscaping at the new home for the Normal CornBelters, the Corn Crib has small plots of corn planted under the scoreboard. “We wanted to show as much as we …
ICMB Chairman Throws Opening Pitch at Corn Crib
Throwing out one of the opening pitches for the Normal CornBelters baseball home game at the Corn Crib was Jim Rapp, Illinois Corn Marketing Board. Cindy took a photo of me interviewing him as we came off the mound and you can find more photos in the photo album. I talked to Jim about the ICMB support for this stadium …
Illinois Corn Growers Present the Corn Crib
It’s opening night for the Normal CornBelters baseball team at the brand new Corn Crib stadium. The Corn Crib is presented by Illinois Corn Farmers and the AgWired team is set up in their suite getting ready for the first pitch. We’ll be here taking photos and getting some interviews throughout the evening. Of course we’ve already got a photo …