AgWired

I thought that Osborn & Barr had some pretty nice digs in Clayton, MO but from the sound of it they’re going to get even nicer. Of course there is that downtown traffic to contend with but then it wasn’t great out in the Clayton area either at times. Last week they announced that the agency will be re-locating its headquarters to downtown St. Louis.

The move completes plans to renovate the Ballpark Lofts I, Cupples 9 Building, placing the agency in the heart of St. Louis’ rich, agricultural heritage. The renovation also brings more dining, office and living space to the historic area.

“For decades, the Cupples Building complex was the major river/rail shipping center in the country, specifically helping America’s farmers ship their goods throughout the country,” says Steve Barr, CEO of Osborn & Barr. “As an agricultural agency based in St. Louis that is an extremely important and emotional connection for us, particularly given all of the clients we work with in Missouri. The building is on the National Historic Register, so our space will strongly feature that history as we transform it to be a creative destination that our clients will enjoy.”

American diary products are finding their way from the Midwest to Middle East. One of the largest milk producers in Michigan is now supplying kosher milk to an Israeli food distributer.

This food distributor has ordered 500 metric tons of kosher whole milk powder from Vreba-Hoff. The Michigan dairy has 5,700 milking cows at its two Hudson farms. Under the contract, the dairy will ship 9.5 million pounds (1.15 million gallons) of whole milk to a kosher processing facility in Kentucky, which will convert the milk into powder and then ship to Israel.

“Kosher” refers to food products that meet the dietary requirements of Jewish law. Kosher certification guarantees that the source of the ingredient and the status of the production equipment meet certain requirements, including superior sanitation levels and on-site rabbinical supervision. The distributor has referred to the products as “super kosher” because the procedures the dairy is following far exceed kosher criteria. These products also often meet the strict dietary requirements of other religions, including Islam.

Cotton Incorporated wants consumers to know that they’re choosing green when they choose cotton. And, as Earth Day approaches, the company wants to highlight its environmentally-conscious practices.

Cotton Incorporated has reinforced its commitment to the environment by producing and participating in several special projects that communicate the importance of minimizing harm on the environmental footprint by being natural, sustainable, responsible and renewable.

Cotton Incorporated has also reached out to the college aged consumer with the COTTON. FROM BLUE TO GREEN(TM) denim drive; an environmentally aware initiative in which denim is recycled into UltraTouch natural cotton fiber insulation and is donated for rebuilding houses in the hurricane-affected Gulf Coast region.

Officials at Vermeer Corporation have named Joe Michaels as Forage Segment Director effective immediately.

Michaels, who previously served as the segment’s sales manager, is now responsible for overall operations and will report directly to corporate management.

Michaels brings twenty-five years of agricultural equipment sales, service, marketing and product development experience.

After joining Vermeer as ag product director in 2000, he left the company briefly to help McCormick, USA re-launch the McCormick brand in the U.S. market (McCormick USA, which was originally based in Pella, shared a strategic marketing alliance with Vermeer from November 2001 to March 2004) and then returned to the Vermeer forage group as sales manager.

The University of Wisconsin – Platteville graduate resides in Pella, Iowa, with his wife and youngest son.

I’ll be out of touch for the next several days going on my annual retreat. Just thought I’d let you know. Posting will be pretty light.

I think everyone needs a couple of days to get away from email, texts, etc. Yeah, right.

But that’s what I’m going to be doing. I’ll be back on Sunday afternoon. Until then . . .