The big news today at the National Biodiesel Conference was the unveiling of the biodiesel bike built by Paul Teutul, Sr., Orange County Choppers. The bike was built in partnership with CIMA Green. Today the bike debuted on stage driven by former NBB Chairman, Ed Hegland. Then Paul Sr. himself drove it onto the biodiesel vehicle showcase floor where he talked about the project with attendees. CIMA Green actually had two bikes built and donated one to the National Biodiesel Board along with a check for $50,000 to use for transportation expenses to showcase the bike at various events around the country.
I spoke with Paul Sr. just prior to his entry into the exhibit hall and he says the bike was a tough one to build. He says it’s not a speed demon but it won’t break down, “It’s just made to go.” The bike has affectionately been named Susie, btw.
His poetic composition for the cattle industry was on the timely topic of dust – and anyone aware of the bureaucratic battle over the regulation of “particulate matter” will enjoy Tom’s “It’s Only Dust.”
The need for more training of meat-counter employees became evident after Merck Animal Health conducted a series of consumer panels that revealed consumers identify the staff behind the counter as experts. “The consumer that goes to the retail store today still sees the person behind the counter in a white coat as the butcher and they expect them to have vast knowledge of the beef products they’re selling,” said Kyle Pfieffer with Merck Animal Health, who notes that the need for training was quickly confirmed during retailer discussions.
The Better Beef Sales program includes six video segments and takes about two hours total to complete. To learn more about the Better Beef Sales retail education program, visit www.beefretail.org.
Listen to Kyle’s comments, along with Melissa Tessitore and Trevor Amen of NCBA as they introduce “Better Beef Sales” on Wednesday at the Cattle Industry Convention in Nashville: Better Beef Sales Introduction
Agriblogger was one of the “techie talkers” at the first ever NCBA Communications workshop, organized by Mike Deering and Mary Geiger of the NCBA Washington staff, prior to the kick off of the 2012 Cattle Industry Convention in Nashville Tuesday.
State cattle and beef organization staff involved in communications were invited to the workshop and about 40 from around the country attended. In addition to Chuck’s presentation on the latest tools of the trade for communicators, the tech talk segment of the workshop also featured Lauren Chase of the Montana Stockgrowers Association (MSGA).
Lauren has been Multimedia Outreach Specialist for MSGA for less than a year and has already made a name for herself in the agricultural social media world. She graduated in 2010 from the University of Iowa with degrees in both journalism and anthropology and while she has no agriculture background, she has become a strong advocate for agriculture.
One of the social media moves she made for the MSGA last year was to take advantage of the fact that current NCBA president Bill Donald hails from Montana to make him into a YouTube spokesman for the beef industry. It helps that Bill is a colorful personality with a great sense of humor and that, combined with Lauren’s talent with a Flip camera and video editing software, created the YouTube video series “Bill on Beef” which airs weekly.
Here’s a sample of “Bill on Beef.”
Follow the Cattle Industry Convention on Twitter using the #CIC12 hashtag.
The collaboration between Novus International and Verenium has yielded its first fruit, “the selection of a next-generation phytase as the first enzyme candidate from the two companies’ strategic collaboration to advance toward commercialization.” The strategic partnership began in June of last year to develop a suite of new enzyme products from Verenium’s late-stage pipeline in the animal nutrition and health area globally. Pictured is Novus President/CEO Thad Simons (right) with Arne Solbak and Jonny Lyon, Verenium.
“This partnership has enabled us to create enzyme solutions for nutritionists, producers and others who want to optimize nutrition. This product is geared toward use in poultry, pork and aquaculture product,” notes Novus International President and Chief Executive Officer Thad Simons. “We’re pleased to be a valued partner in optimizing nutrition and, as a result, lowering feed costs for our customers through cutting-edge enzyme solutions like this one.”
Reducing the amount of phytate-bound phosphorus is key in helping livestock producers reduce the impact of animal production on the environment. The phytase enzyme being developed as part of this collaboration will help nutritionists and producers feed more efficiently and get the most out of their rations.
In addition to the next-generation phytase, the collaboration also has three additional products in late-stage development targeted at this market.
I spoke with Thad during the International Poultry Expo to learn more about the collaboration between these two companies. He also discussed the new Novus Triple S Bottom Line, Solutions, Service, Sustainability.
During this year that the United Nations has declared the “International Year of Cooperatives,” GROWMARK has a number of projects going on to participate. To learn about them I spoke with Amy Bradford, Corporate Communications Manager.
Amy says GROWMARK has several programs underway. One of them works with their local cooperatives called, “You’re on the World Stage.” It allows them to pick ways that they would like to “recognize their own contribution to the socioeconomic world through the cooperative enterprise structure.” The basic level is doing local publicity in their community. A more unique program is helping local cooperatives select a “sister” cooperative in another part of the world to learn more about them and bring that information back into the community.
Learn more about what GROWMARK is doing during this historic year in my interview with Amy: Amy Bradford Interview
Dan Kelley, President of the GROWMARK Board of Directors, talks about the importance of cooperatives in the agriculture industry today and how the GROWMARK System ties into the cooperative form of business in this video created for this year’s celebration.
Aloha from yet another president at the 93rd American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting – the president of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters (NAFB). Tom Steever of Brownfield Ag News gave the traditional NAFB president greeting at the start of the closing general session Monday – and was darn near as funny as keynote speaker and Pulitzer Prize winning humorist Dave Barry.
On the American Farm Bureau annual meeting blog is a nice video interview that Janice Person (@JPLovesCotton) did with Hawaii Farm Bureau president Dean Okimoto, a farmer on Oahu who mainly grows baby greens, herbs and specialty vegetables for restaurants in Oahu or to sell through farmers’ markets.
Dean talks with Janice about agriculture in Hawaii, which mainly features small farms compared to the mainland but with year-round productivity. Dean also discusses the importance of the ag community in Aloha State.
Enjoy, and be sure to check out the AFBF meeting blog for the perspectives of guest bloggers from around the country who are contributing.
Those of you who visited with BASF at the 2011 Commodity Classic may have gotten a chance to see corporate magician Jon Petz perform there. BASF liked him so much that they brought him to NAAA to entertain the aerial applicator folks. Jon, pictured here in the middle with some of the BASF crew, is a fun and really interesting guy. Not only is his magic amazing, it’s equally impressive how he works in the BASF message at the same time. Entertaining and educating!
Becker Underwood has a new video available addressing the need to feed our growing world population. It’s available on their sustainability website and YouTube. Follow along with them on their blog, The Comment.
It’s one of the most critical questions of our time – how are we going to feed the growing global population that is expected to reach 9 billion people by the year 2050? As we all know, agricultural productivity gains are vital to enable the global population to have access to healthy, nutritious and affordable food. Becker Underwood, technology-intensive developer of biologicals and specialty products for the ag sector, just released a video that addresses this need that would be of great interest to your readers, “Feeding the World Using Soybean BioStacked Sustainable Technologies.”
I’m sure this is applicable to agriculture somehow. I just think it’s pretty cool and wanted to share it. With all the talk about geo-located services and precision agriculture it’s neat to think that you can track Santa’s progress as he does his thing at Christmas time. Get the official NORAD Tracks Santa app for your iPhone or Android phone.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command is getting ready to track Santa’s yuletide journey! The NORAD Tracks Santa website, www.noradsanta.org, went live today featuring a Countdown Calendar, a Kid’s Countdown Village complete with holiday games and activities that change daily, and video messages from students and troops from around the world. With the addition of Brazilian Portuguese, the website is now available in eight languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, and Chinese.
This year, using free apps in the Apple iTunes Store and in the Android Market, parents and children can countdown the days until Santa’s take off on their smart phones! Tracking opportunities are also offered on Facebook, Google+, YouTube, and Twitter. Santa followers just need to type “@noradsanta” into each search engine to get started. (more…)
During the recent NAFB convention, AgriTalk recorded a panel discussion about new research on Atrazine. This herbicide, which has been on the market for more than 50 years is very beneficial from an economic and environmental standpoint in the production of corn, sorghum and sugar cane according to this new research.
I interviewed one of those researchers, Dr. Mike Owen, during the NAFB Trade Talk in the Syngenta booth. He says his role was to investigate the issue of herbicide resistance. He says the information basically reinforces what most people already knew about the impact of using glyphosate resistant crops with glyphosate to the exclusion of a lot of the other tools in the agricultural toolbox. He says farmers are still in denial about this issue. They need to diversity in weed management! You can find a number of links on this subject posted by Dr. Owen here.
According to a release from Syngenta (pdf) on this subject:
U.S. consumers and society benefit from atrazine and other triazine herbicides by up to $4.8 billion per year, due to increased yield as well as decreased producer costs and reduced soil erosion, according to new studies released today in Kansas City.
In addition, the U.S. economy benefits from atrazine and other triazine herbicides by as much as $22 billion over a five-year period. Benefits to farmers and consumers from the triazine herbicides include increased corn, sorghum and sugar cane crop yields, lower weed-control costs, significantly reduced soil erosion and less carbon released into the atmosphere. Atrazine and the triazine herbicides account for as many as 48,000 American jobs in corn production alone.
You can watch the AgriTalk program with all the researchers, as they share highlights of the new data, documenting atrazine’s impact on weed management, crop yields and jobs.
At the recent NAMA Trends in Agriculture conference one of our panel discussions focused on “Trends In Energy/Alternative Fuels.” On the panel were Nathan Schock, POET & Matt Roberts, PhD.
What are the main influences escalating the demand for ethanol and other plant-based energy? This session examines the trends in the alternative fuel market and the initiatives needed to drive the production to meet the demand. You’ll also discover the messages and opportunities on which ag communicators and marketers need to focus.
Thanks to Paulsen Marketing for supplying this video clip with Nathan who talks about government’s role in ethanol’s future.
Fresh from Florida seafood keeps you at the top of your game. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services just announced that it is teaming up with the Florida Gators (my team) and the Florida State Seminoles to “harness the home team passion associated with the athletics rivalry and direct it towards supporting Florida products. The partnership leverages every game, match and competition between the two teams in 18 sports to promote Fresh From Florida.” Now that’s a major sponsorship! It all kicks off this week with the Saturday football game which is now being called the Sunshine Showdown.
The tradition-rich Florida Gators vs. Florida State Seminoles football game will serve as the signature event of this partnership to communicate the importance of all that’s Fresh From Florida to an audience that is uniquely Florida: Gator and Seminole Fans. This year’s matchup of the Florida Gators and Florida State Seminoles football teams will be titled the “Fresh From Florida Sunshine Showdown,” scheduled for November 26 in Gainesville. The Fresh from Florida Sunshine Showdown will highlight the importance of supporting Florida farmers and fisherman and communicate the impact of buying home grown and harvested products from Florida.
“The Fresh From Florida Sunshine Showdown brings two of Florida’s great teams head to head,” said Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam. “As each side cheers for their home team, we’re hopeful they’ll support Florida’s ultimate home team, Florida’s farmers and fishermen.”
Here’s one of the tv ads for the campaign featuring Florida Coach Will Muschamp.
A former U.S. Senator and the first woman president of NAFB are the newest members of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
Senator Conrad Burns of Montana founded the Northern Ag Network in the 1970s before getting into politics. He was only the second Republican ever elected from the state of Montana, serving for 18 years in the Senate.
The lovely Colleen Callahan, whose married name is actually Burns (no relation to Conrad), becomes the first woman to be inducted in the NAFB Hall of Fame. She was the first female NAFB president and currently serves as Illinois State Director for USDA Rural Development.
I videoed Conrad’s comments after receiving his award and stripped off the audio. Not the best quality, but I am glad I caught it. Some great comments here. Conrad Burns at NAFB
I love the tweet I just saw from the Herman Cain Campaign announcing their new YouTube ad for Iowa which says that it “even features smoking tractors!” Now that is funny right there.
In the video you’ll see Dean Kleckner, Chairman, Truth About Trade & Technology, explain why he endorses Herman Cain for President.
It’s the last month of the New Holland Boomer 555 Contest, a social media driven promotion. Entries have poured in from all over the United States and Canada. Contest entries can be in the form of a written essay, uploaded photo or link to a YouTube video. All forms of entries have been received. I’ve posted a video entry below as an example. ZimmComm has had the pleasure to work with New Holland on this project which includes a blog and associated social networking accounts.
Many thanks to Lana Bell from Killarney, Manitoba for her entry into the contest. Lana came up with lots of things she would do with a new Boomer tractor. As you’ll see in the video, she plans to let her husband on the tractor in year five of the lease, “maybe.”
So it’s not too late to get your entry in and let New Holland know what you would do with a new Boomer tractor. Just fill out the entry form which you can find right here.
John Deere is trying to build a combine out of cans.
We’re talking about 300,000 cans of food here to replicate a full-sized S-Series combine in a field. It would be a world record. Kind of like what America’s farmers do every year – set new records in feeding the world.
The John Deere Project ”CAN DO” combine sculpture and food donation program are designed to raise awareness of the essential role farmers and ranchers play in producing safe, healthy and abundant food for a growing world population, while supplying much needed food supplies to a local food bank during the holiday season. The more than 300,000 cans of food needed to complete the sculpture are donated by John Deere with delivery from Hy-Vee Food Stores. When completed, the sculpture will be 60 feet wide, 80 feet long and 16 feet tall and will weigh nearly 170 tons. The sculpture depicts John Deere’s new S-690 Combine, which is the world’s most powerful combine that can harvest more than 350 acres of grain a day.
Project “CAN DO” also gives consumers a chance to be a part of building the can sculpture by ‘virtually’ creating cans of food, explains Richard Williamson, art director for John Deere Ag and Turf. “Anyone interested in participating can go to the John Deere Facebook page www.facebook.com/johndeere to submit their name and a photograph, which will be wrapped around their virtual personalized food can as part of a virtual sculpture.”
Helping to design the combine sculpture is a team from the Chicago office of architectural firm, RTKL. John Deere employees and retirees will also volunteer to assist with the overall project. The combine can sculpture will be on display at the John Deere Pavilion in downtown Moline, Ill., from mid-November to mid-December. All the canned food will be donated to the River Bend Foodbank when the sculpture is dismantled.
Meat MythCrushers (The American Meat Science Association and the American Meat Institute) has just released a new episode in their library of videos to help people find the truth behind a lot of meat myths. Let’s take a look at this one on transglutaminase which is being called “meat glue.” There’s a rumor going viral on the web about this. In fact, one of my friends from grammar school forwarded me an email from a friend of his who was all worried and afraid of the information on the internet. I looked at it and forwarded him some facts and a link to this video so he could get some perspective. Nothing like the truth for perspective, eh?
Transglutaminase is a protein that is used to bind ingredients together in many foods. In meat products, for example, it can help hold bacon around a filet mignon to create a bacon wrapped filet or it can help hold several smaller cuts together to make a larger cut that can be sliced.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recognized transglutaminase as safe and it has been safely used for many years. Canada, Australia and many of European countries also recognize this as a safe food processing aid. Transglutaminase is not classified as an allergen. Still, when it is used, it will appear on the ingredient label.
Watch Dana Hanson, Ph.D., associate professor and meat extension specialist, food science at North Carolina State University, clarify why transglutaminase is used, how it is labeled and why it is safe. Meanwhile, I think I’ll go glue some steaks together for supper!
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.
The big news today at the National Biodiesel Conference was the unveiling of the biodiesel bike built by Paul Teutul, Sr., Orange County Choppers. The bike was built in partnership with CIMA Green. Today the bike debuted on stage driven by former NBB Chairman, Ed Hegland. Then Paul Sr. himself drove it onto the biodiesel vehicle showcase floor where he talked about the project with attendees. CIMA Green actually had two bikes built and donated one to the National Biodiesel Board along with a check for $50,000 to use for transportation expenses to showcase the bike at various events around the country.
The need for more training of meat-counter employees became evident after Merck Animal Health conducted a series of consumer panels that revealed consumers identify the staff behind the counter as experts. “The consumer that goes to the retail store today still sees the person behind the counter in a white coat as the butcher and they expect them to have vast knowledge of the beef products they’re selling,” said Kyle Pfieffer with Merck Animal Health, who notes that the need for training was quickly confirmed during retailer discussions.
Agriblogger was one of the “techie talkers” at the first ever 
Lauren has been Multimedia Outreach Specialist for MSGA for less than a year and has already made a name for herself in the agricultural social media world. She graduated in 2010 from the University of Iowa with degrees in both journalism and anthropology and while she has no agriculture background, she has become a strong advocate for agriculture. 
Amy says 
There was magic in the air at the 
A former U.S. Senator and the first woman president of NAFB are the newest members of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
We’re talking about 300,000 cans of food here to replicate a full-sized S-Series combine in a field. It would be a world record. Kind of like what America’s farmers do every year – set new records in feeding the world. 
In this week's program Chuck talks with Mike Adams, AgriTalk.
