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Remember when American-made cars meant quality? Well, maybe it still does. An interesting little story has surfaced this week as Mike Lewallen, a Stoller salesman, who has traveled around the country in the name of agriculture, has put more than 1 million miles, on his Ford truck.
Now this my friends, is quite an accomplishment.
Ironically, this video was shot during 2010 Corn College right next to the Chevy display. Check it out.
This was me moments before rain drops hit Iowa Speedway again yesterday. After years of taking photos of other people getting a ride in the Indy 2-Seater I finally had my chance. But just as we were about to pull onto the track rain canceled the deal. Oh well, maybe another time. I do think I look good in an Indy Car though. Thanks to Ann Marie Edwards, Edwards Communications, for the photo. Our two drivers for the event were Sarah Fisher and Davey Hamilton.
When I got in line I was surprised to be right behind Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey. Bill follows me on Twitter and is an AgWired fan btw! So, I got my iPhone out for a short interview. He says that the challenges in the Gulf remind us that a home grown fuel like ethanol is one we ought to be producing more of. He’d like to see an extension of the ethanol tax credit this year. He says we need domestic fuel, we need jobs and we need economic activity and ethanol answers those needs.
You can listen to my interview with Sec. Northey below.
Defining and improving sustainability is important for all of production agriculture around the globe, which is why BASF has taken a keen interest in the subject.
Markus Heldt is president of crop protection for BASF global, located in Germany, a position he took last year after serving for many years as head of crop protection for the company in North America. During a conference on sustainability for ag media in Chicago this week, he said that while the general public trusts farmers, they have little confidence in farming methods. “What we find increasingly disturbing is the disconnect of how the general public views farming operations, especially in the US and in Europe,” Markus said. “A very romantic and idealistic picture of agriculture that is not existing any longer.”
Markus says farmers are taking care of the land and improving the way they do business, but consumers do not understand that and it is a challenge for the entire agriculture industry. “We as a company, as an industry, have to a better job to try and bridge that gap,” he said.
Listen to my interview with Markus in the player below.
Sustainability has become a challenge to the agriculture industry because everyone seems to have a different definition of the word and ways to objectively measure sustainability are seriously lacking.
BASF announced an Eco-Efficiency Analysis tool during the 2010 Ag Media Summit in Chicago today that examines the entire lifecycle of a crop to measure and manage sustainability. “When we look at all the inputs that go into producing, storing, transporting, applying and then disposing of a crop protection product, we have a more detailed approach of measuring inputs, outputs and benefits,” says Paul Rea, BASF vice president for crop protection in the U.S.
The real bottom line to better sustainability is really simply increasing yields, and Paul says that can be achieved in a variety of ways. “Such as the use of new technologies, new innovations that can actually help farmers achieve more with less,” he said. That includes plant health products like BASF Headline that increase yields, as well as biotech advancements in areas such as drought tolerance.
Listen to an interview with Paul in the player below.
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 “field of dreams.” He hopes the CornBelters are very successful. You can listen to my interview with Jim below.
I thought I’d also include a new video about the opening home game in the Corn Crib that was produced by the Illinois Corn Growers summer interns. I think they did a great job. How about you?
Post Update: Here’s another video with a look at the pitching skills of Illinois corn farmer Jim Rapp on opening day of the Corn Crib:
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 could actually what corn is,” said Illinois Corn Growers Field Services Director Jim Tarmann. “So, we’ve got six different mini-plots of field corn that are already coming up and we planted that ourselves.” Local FFA chapters are growing specialty corn, including popcorn and sweet corn, that will be worked into the as-yet-unfinished landscape in and around the ball park. Pioneer and Syngenta are also part of that project as co-sponsors of the new team and stadium.
Jim says the Illinois beef and pork producers and Prairie Farms are sponsors as well. “We’re all very excited about this new venue to talk about modern production agriculture,” he said during an interview we did in the Illinois Corn office this morning.
Nearly 6,000 fans attended the opening home game Tuesday night against the Windy City Thunderbolts, and even though the Cornbelters lost the game 3-2, it was an exciting game in the end and everyone had a great time. Listen to or download my interview with Jim in the player below and check out the rest of the photos from the event.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack sent a letter last week to Illinois cattle producer and NCBA President Steve Foglesong expressing the need for additional clarity regarding the proposed governance structure. “The effort NCBA has undertaken to change our governance structure has received an awful lot of attention, more than I thought we would going into this,” said Foglesong. “I’m going to take that as a compliment – people really do care about NCBA and what we do.”
Steve says NCBA’s goals are to fuel producer profitability by building and protecting beef demand and to preserve producers freedom to operate without excessive government intervention. “I believe our proposed governance model helps deliver on these goals by increasing producer input into our programs and policies and by enabling quicker decision making through a 29 member board, rather than our current 274 member board.”
Vilsack expressed concern that the proposed structure would “weaken the firewall between policy and checkoff funded activities, thereby jeopardizing the Beef Checkoff program and set a bad precedent for checkoff programs in general.” Foglesong and Scott George, NCBA Federation Division Chair and Wyoming dairy/beef producer addressed each of Vilsack’s concerns one at a time in answer to questions from reporters.
“The problem we’re having here is a break down in understanding what ‘firewall’ is,” said George. “We believe the firewall is an accounting firewall and that has been strictly enforced and will continue to be strictly enforced.”
Foglesong stressed their transparency throughout the restructuring process. “This is a draft,” Foglesong said. “That’s one of the reasons that it passed by 94 percent at the convention. We made changes and we listened to people.”
Industry representatives will be meeting with other groups who have concerns about the restructuring this week.
Listen to or download the entire press conference here:
The Alltech International Animal Health and Nutrition Symposium brings in participants and customers from all over the world. I met several of them during a reception yesterday. They represent companies that have partnered with Alltech for the upcoming World Equestrian Games. I’ll feature interviews with them over the next several days. So let’s get started with the Netherlands.
Eric Heemskerk, Heemskerk, says his company is based in the Netherlands but also works in Belgium and Germany. They have both equine and dairy products. Eric says business in his country has been very strong.
Heemskerk is a partnering company with the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games and Eric sees the event as a great opportunity. He calls the opportunity one of team building since his company works very closely with Alltech and together they hope to make the Games very successful. His goal is to build that team spirit between his customers, his staff and the Alltech representatives he works with.
The Alltech 26th International Animal Health and Nutrition Industry Symposium got underway this evening with the International Dinner. This may be the 26th Symposium but it’s the celebration of 30 years since Alltech was founded by Dr. Pearse Lyons.
Once again this year Dr. Everett McCorvey, Professor of Voice at the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre, introduced some wonderful voices to sing for us. You can listen to one of the songs below.
The audience also got into the act on a couple of songs like “My Old Kentucky Home” and “Molly Malone.”
I’ve updated the photo album and we’ll get started at 9am with our first general session. So until then . . .
Billy Frey calls the Alltech Symposium the “U.N. of agriculture.” I got a preview of the year’s event from him this morning that I thought I’d share. I’ll get in to Lexington, KY Sunday afternoon prior to the opening International Dinner. He says they’ll have over 1.500 in attendance this year with over half of them coming from outside the United States. They’ll be coming to learn more about animal nutrition for all species (beef, dairy, swine, aqua, poultry, equine and pets). Besides all the Symposium programs there’s also a lot of sharing of ideas which has been a real benefit seen by attendees year after year.
This year their will be live streams from the Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning sessions which you’ll find on their website.
Chapter leaders attending the NAMA convention get some special motivation and training. This year one of people doing the training was Luann Pisarik, J. L. Farmakis (left). I’m just guessing by all the road signs in the room that they were navigating road blocks to get to their destination.
Luann says they had a varied group and their goal was to provide a networking opportunity to discuss common challenges. The theme was to “look at the road signs.” She says “everyone drives” and they hope to help these leaders reach their goal. She says chapter membership and getting people to meetings is a common concern.
This flying machine has got to appeal to the kid in any farmer or rancher who loves to play with remote-controlled toys.
It’s called the AutoCopter, it costs about $30,000 up front and less than $2.00 an hour to operate, and it can let you see your crops, land, fences, barn roof, wind turbine or whatever from a bird’s eye view without leaving the ground. How cool is that?
“You are able to survey and target precise areas with video,” says Donald Effren, AutoCopter president. “You can fly with GPS information readouts on your laptop screen, including latitude and longitude, altitude, direction of flight and distance from home.” Just a few of the farm and ranch applications for this device include precision nutrient mapping, tracking livestock, inspecting fences, or examining a roof for hail damage.
The AutoCopter has stabilized software that allows it to hover over target field areas, providing a mobile aerial platform for surveillance, photography and sensor management. Designed for commercial use, it is able to carry up to 15 pounds, which is more than adequate for modern digital camera technology, as the typical camera often weighs less than 2 lbs.
I did an interview with Donald about the product, which you can listen to in the player below – right under this video that gives a view from an AutoCopter. You can see more AutoCopter demo videos here.
Using enhanced efficiency fertilizers (EEF’s) in corn and wheat was the subject of a presentation by Greg Schwab, University of Kentucky, at the Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizer Conference. We’re just starting to see these products make their way into large acre crop use.
I spoke to Greg after his presentation and he says he works very closely with farmers and crop consultants. They want to know how these products will affect yield. So, he works in field environments testing various EEF, especially the stabilized nitrogen products. He’s found that some products work very well and some don’t in his environment. He says farmers need to take into account all the elements of their system and perhaps seek some advice from a professional. I also asked him how these products fit into precision application mechanisms and he says they do so very well, especially when it comes to controlling rates.
One of our keynote speakers at the Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizer Conference is Sarah Landels, Managing Director, AgIndustries Research & Consulting, Inc. Her job was to talk about the world market for EEF’s. Let’s just call them EEF’s since that’s easier than Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizers, okay?
Sarah conducted a study on this subject a few years ago and presented information from it as well as speaking about the future. She says that EEF’s in the ag market are still in the early stages but growing rapidly. In fact, she sees most of the growth in the EEF market in agriculture.
In practically every discussion at the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. (BIVI) Swine Health Seminar in Omaha, NE, the talk has been about Porcine Respiratory and Reproductive Syndrome … better known as PRRS.
It’s estimated that the disease costs pork producers $560 million a year in this country alone. And it’s why Dr. Randy Jones, a veterinarian with Livestock Veterinary Services, has told his fellow vets that the only real option is eliminating the disease altogether.
“If we can’t control it, we need to eradicate it.”
But Dr. Jones says that eradicating it is easier said than done. So in the meantime, producers have to minimize their risks.
“We can’t take [risk] away, but we can minimize it with immunizations and biosecurity.”
He says if they can get outbreaks of PRRS down to once every five years instead of once a year, farmers will save money. Dr. Jones says that eradication is probably still years away, underscoring the importance of good vaccines and good management practices. He adds that while the current PRRS vaccine isn’t a perfect tool, it is a tool that can help cut down on those outbreaks and, hopefully, preserve some bottom lines.
You can hear more of my conversation with Dr. Jones below.
His presentation was entitled “The quagmire of Enzootic Pneumonia: a view from the trenches.” But while that was a mouthful of a title looking at one disease, Dr. James Lowe’s real message to his fellow veterinarians was to take a more holistic approach when looking at the health strategy of a swine herd.
The visiting assistant clinical professor at the University of Illinois and veterinarian with the Carthage Veterinary Service told attendees of the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. (BIVI) Swine Health Seminar in Omaha, NE that they need to think about not just controlling or eliminating the disease-causing organisms, but how do they control overall disease in pigs.
“We really have got to think about that in a holistic approach. We have to think about the system and, really, what tools are available to us.”
He says when vets think about managing diseases, such as PRRS, they really need to use all of the tools in their tool bag, such as how gilts entering the farm are handled and how pigs leaving the farm are taken care of as well. He says the right vaccine strategy in concert with the pig flow in and out of the farm is that holistic approach.
“I don’t care about the agent. What I really want to know is how much disease we have, because that’s what costs us profit.”
He also encourages producers and veterinarians to look at the long-term, not just what they do today and tomorrow.
More of my conversation with Dr. Lowe is available below.
Since learning never seems to stop in the real world, an Iowa State University veterinary diagnostician has advised his fellow veterinarians to do their homework.
Dr. Kent Schwartz was one of the featured speakers at the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. (BIVI) Swine Health Seminar in Omaha, NE, and he told the group that diagnosing endemic diseases is a lot more work than epidemic diseases.
“There’s a lot of risk factors that contribute to it, so assessment requires diligence in diagnostic workup, but moreover, diligence in assessing production practices, parameters and outcomes.”
He says the most common answer to questions regarding biology is: “It depends.” You need to take into account production practices and all the other factors that might affect the health of the herd. Dr. Schwartz says veterinarians must be open to exploring holes in their dogma or in areas that need further investigation. He says that means getting better at field trials. And that’s where BIVI comes in. He says the company has some top-notch field research that has trustworthy results.
“I truly think BI’s a leader in that.”
Dr. Schwartz hopes the veterinarians that have participated in this BIVI Swine Health Seminar will be able to go back and think about how they think about things and challenge their own assumptions.
More of my conversation with Dr. Schwartz is below.
A great opening session at the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. (BIVI) Swine Health Seminar in Omaha, with BIVI’s own Director of Technical Services, Dr. Tyler Holck, talking to attendees about FLEX vaccinology.
Dr. Holck talked about how Ingelvac’s CircoFLEX and MycoFLEX vaccines have nearly three years and 200 million doses of experience in U.S. swine herds. He says that has given the company lots of information on the vaccines.
“When we look at what we have for CircoFLEX, for example, we’ve got over 30 different trials conducted … either efficacy or safety.” And Holck says that can make for a mountain of data (even comparing it to the great mounds of snow Midwesterners have dealt with this winter!). He says BIVI’s goal is to simplify this vast amount of information for producers and veterinarians to make good, interpretive recommendations from that knowledge. Dr. Holck calls it distilling down to the simple side of complex.
“We do look at a lot of different things, but at the end of the day, we’re looking at what’s most economical for the producer.”
Dr. Holck says that really comes down to average daily gain and feed efficiency. He says, for example, a product like CircoFLEX can return on investment $4-5 for every one dollar a producer spends, so it’s too important not to monitor and have all the tools needed.
Hear more of my conversation with Dr. Holck below.
In partnership with BASF, the National Corn Growers Association Academic Excellence in Agriculture Scholarship Program awarded five $1,000 scholarships to undergraduate or graduate students pursuing a degree in an agriculture-related field during the 2010 Commodity Classic.
Three of the five recipients were at the Classic to be honored on Friday and they are pictured here at the BASF trade show exhibit between Nevin McDougall of BASF and NCGA Chairman Bob Dickey of Nebraska.
Left to right, they are:
John Schultz of Dyersburg, Tennessee, a sophomore at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville studying food and agricultural business; Gina Meyer of New Ulm, Minnesota, a junior at the University of Minnesota pursuing a major in animal science; Carly Cummings of Pleasantville, Iowa – Carly is a sophomore at Iowa State University majoring in agricultural business.
Charlene Barlieb of Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania who graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 2009 and will be returning to Penn State this fall to pursue her graduate degree in animal sciences, and Lisa Tronchetti of Paton, Iowa
Listen to an interview with John, Gina and Carly below.
In this week's program Chuck talks with Mike Adams, AgriTalk.
Chuck and Mike often wind up at the same events all over the country so it seemed like a good idea to do a little AgriTalking about the changes they've seen in the ag media landscape.
Scoop up some extra cash for the holiday season by filling out the AgWired Survey. By participating in our fast, easy survey, you could win $250 to spend on yourself or to help spread the joy to your friends and family.
This was me moments before rain drops hit Iowa Speedway again yesterday. After years of taking photos of other people getting a ride in the 
Defining and improving sustainability is important for all of production agriculture around the globe, which is why 
Sustainability has become a challenge to the agriculture industry because everyone seems to have a different definition of the word and ways to objectively measure sustainability are seriously lacking.
The Commissioner of the 
It’s definitely a field of dreams, but instead of building a ball field in a corn field, 
Jim says the Illinois beef and pork producers and Prairie Farms are sponsors as well. “We’re all very excited about this new venue to talk about modern production agriculture,” he said during an interview we did in the Illinois Corn office this morning.
Representatives of the 
The 
The Alltech 26th International Animal Health and Nutrition Industry Symposium got underway this evening with the International Dinner. This may be the 26th Symposium but it’s the celebration of 30 years since Alltech was founded by Dr. Pearse Lyons.
Chapter leaders attending the NAMA convention get some special motivation and training. This year one of people doing the training was Luann Pisarik, J. L. Farmakis (left). I’m just guessing by all the road signs in the room that they were navigating road blocks to get to their destination.
This flying machine has got to appeal to the kid in any farmer or rancher who loves to play with remote-controlled toys. 
Using enhanced efficiency fertilizers (EEF’s) in corn and wheat was the subject of a presentation by Greg Schwab, University of Kentucky, at the Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizer Conference. We’re just starting to see these products make their way into large acre crop use.
One of our keynote speakers at the Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizer Conference is Sarah Landels, Managing Director, 
In partnership with BASF, the 
and 
In this week's program Chuck talks with Mike Adams, AgriTalk.
