Staying At Historic Brook Lodge

Chuck Zimmerman

Brook LodgeWow. What a day. Talk about getting to know more about a company and their products. That’s what we got to do at Pfizer Animal Health VMRD Headquarters today. Before heading out there we did have our news conference here at Brook Lodge where we’re staying.

The rest of the day involved a lot of presentations and a wet lab experience which I’ll tell you more about later.

I personally think these types of events are a very positive experience for both us as ag journalists and for companies like Pfizer who hold them. We learned more today than probably 10 trade show booth visits. There are a lot of people to thank but I’ll start with Raegan Weber at Pfizer Animal Health and Kenna Rathai at Martin Williams.

Brook LodgeI’ll get more into what we learned soon but I just have to tell you how beautiful this place is. I want to stay for about a week.

I know there’s a lot of history to it which I’d like to have the time to learn. We had a great outside dinner outside the Doctor’s Cottage pictured here. Here’s what the website says about the place. “The historical evolution of the estate is a remarkable story as its origins date back to Dr. W. E. Upjohn, founder of the Upjohn Company. Dr. Will, as he was known, bought a forty-acre farm in 1895. One of the original buildings on the property was a creamery, which he soon converted to a summer cottage for himself and his family.”

Uncategorized

Zimfo Bites

Laura McNamara

  • FMC Corporation (NYSE:FMC) announces that the California Department of Pesticide Registration (DPR) has approved the registration of Beleaf insecticide for use in California. The product is labeled for control of key piercing, sucking pests, including aphids and plant bugs, on a variety of fruits and vegetables. Beleaf has a new active ingredient and unique mode of action that causes rapid and irreversible feeding cessation in insects. This results in the starvation and subsequent death of targeted pests to help protect crops from damage. “Once insects are exposed to Beleaf, they begin to stop feeding in as little as 30 minutes,” Yemel Ortega, Beleaf product manager for FMC Agricultural Products said. “When you stop insects from feeding, you stop damage and disease and virus transmission to the crop, resulting in higher quality produce.”
  • The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced a partnership with the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) that will facilitate the registration of dairy farm, dairy calf and heifer grower premises as part of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). Under the agreement announced today, NMPF, with the cooperation of the rest of the IDairy consortium, will conduct an outreach campaign including direct mail, advertising, Internet activities, dairy and trade show presentations and individual contacts with producers including on-site visits. “This agreement is another important step forward as we advance the National Animal Identification System,” said Bruce Knight, under secretary for USDA’s marketing and regulatory programs.
  • The American Feed Industry Association and the Poultry Protein & Fat Council will sponsor a Conference On Pet Food Ingredient Quality Jan. 22-23, 2008, at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Ga. The conference will begin at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 22, prior to the opening of the International Poultry Expo and the International Feed Expo the following day. All conference attendees will receive complimentary admission to the IPE / IFE. The IPE / IFE features more than 900 exhibitors displaying the latest products, services and technology for the poultry, pet food and feed sectors of the industry. There are currently more than 100 exhibitors signed up who sell to the pet food industry.
Zimfo Bytes

Pfizer Announces SelectVAC Partnerships

Chuck Zimmerman

Don SauderRight now Don Sauder, Pfizer Animal Health, VP, U.S. Cattle Operations is speaking about two new announcements involving the Pfizer SelectVAC preconditioning program. I’m going to interview him as soon as we break and post that later.

The first announcement is that Superior Livestock Auction has chosen SelectVAC as the preferred health program for calves sold through their auction. According to the announcement the partnership creates a new level of preconditioning that both organizations believe will help cow-calf producers get more value for their calves.

The second announcement involves the American Angus Association. The organization, along with Pfizer Animal Health are announcing a marketing alliance for two premier feeder calf programs. The collaboration pairs AngusSource, an age-, source- and genetic-USDA Process Verified Program (PVP) for Angus-sired cattle, with SelectVAC, from Pfizer Animal Health. According to the announcement more than 132,000 calves have been enrolled in AngusSource, nearly 51,000 in the first half of 2007.

More than 2.5 million calves have been enrolled in SelectVAC through its three flexible programs, PreVAC, WeanVAC and StockerVAC. Pfizer also announced today a reward for the 3 millionth enrollment in the program. Pfizer will mark the milestone by awarding that producer with a year’s worth of free SelectVAC products for their entire herd (up to a maximum of $5,000 in value). Calves must be enrolled in SelectVAC online to qualify, so visit SelectVAC.com for more information.

Post Update: Here’s my interview with Don Sauder right after this morning’s announcements: pfizer-vmrd-07-sauder.mp3

Agribusiness

Writing From Pfizer Media Event

Chuck Zimmerman

Pfizer ResearcherIt’s Monday morning and I’m in Michigan getting ready for a couple of days with Pfizer Animal Health. We’re going to hear an announcement from the company here in just about an hour and I should be able to post that by midday if all goes well.

This is a Pfizer researcher at work and later today we’ll be in the lab but I won’t be taking photos. We’ll be supplied with stock images like this one which is fine with me. No cameras in the facility. However I will have some from the news conference this morning here at our hotel facility which is Brook Lodge btw. Very nice.

So over the next day or so we’re going to learn a lot about what’s going on with Pfizer since I’ll be conducting one on one interviews and posting them here. The event has the title, “Delivering Solutions Through Research and Innovation.”

Uncategorized

Meet The New Presidents of AAEA and LPC

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast-131 - New Presidents of AAEA and LPCI’m getting a lot more work done in airports today than I planned on thanks to United Airlines. My short connection in O’Hare turned into a 4 hour (I hope it doesn’t get worse) delay waiting for the next flight to Kalamazoo after several hours delay getting out of St. Louis. Lots of people in my boat since you could probably auction a seat here in concourse E/F. I just like to share my pain. Sorry.

John WalterThis week on the ZimmCast you get to hear from the new presidents of the American Agricultural Editor’s Association and the Livestock Publications Council. These guys got the gavel during the annual meetings of both organizations at last week’s Ag Media Summit.

First up you’ll hear John Walter, AAEA president. He feels humbled to be joining the ranks of some great ag journalists in holding the position of president.

Kyle HaleyNext up is Kyle Haley, LPC president. Both these guys think things are going very well in their organizations and are hoping to continue the efforts started by their predecessors.

The program ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network and Sonny Combs and Kitty Kat Rodeo. The song is “Like a Fool.” Since he wrote and asked that we feature his music I am only happy to oblige.

You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: Listen To ZimmCastZimmCast 131 (11 min MP3)

Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:

zimmcast131-8-5-07.mp3

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes

2007 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the Ag Media Summit
is being sponsored by: AgraGate Climate Credits Corporation

ACN, Ag Media Summit, Audio, LPC

NAFB Board Meets At Ag Media Summit

Chuck Zimmerman

NAFB PeopleThe National Association of Farm Broadcasting held a board meeting at the Ag Media Summit last week. Does this mean the group’s giving some consideration to getting with the program? I don’t know. A presentation was made to the group by folks representing the AMS though.

Here’s some happy looking NAFB’ers bellying up at Huber Winery last week.

I don’t know if you noticed but I think everyone was smiling all the time.

2007 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the Ag Media Summit
is being sponsored by: AgraGate Climate Credits Corporation

Ag Media Summit, NAFB

CHS Buys The DDG Business From CSC

Chuck Zimmerman

CHS, Inc.Those DDG’s must have some value eh?

CHS , a leading grains, food and energy company, and Commodity Specialists Company (CSC) have entered into a definitive purchase agreement for CHS to acquire the distillers dried grain (DDG) marketing business of CSC. The transaction has been approved by the boards of both companies and is scheduled to become effective in the coming week. Steve Markham and Sean Broderick, current managers of this operation for CSC, will continue to direct the activity of this unit as employees of CHS.

“For the last 20 years, CSC has successfully focused on being the premier independent DDG marketer in the ethanol industry,” said Phil Lindau, CSC co-president. “As volume in the ethanol industry continues to expand rapidly over the next five years, we determined our DDG business would benefit from the resources of a larger entity.”

“This DDG business, in addition to providing exceptional sourcing for current CSC customers, also provides an excellent supply complement to CHS grain and by-product customers, both domestically and internationally,” said Rick Browne, senior vice president, CHS Grain Marketing. “Putting together CSC’s marketing and industry expertise with our global access and established distribution capabilities will enhance the already high level of service and market execution to both ethanol plant suppliers and DDG customers.”

Agribusiness, Ethanol

Dry Corn to the Right Dry Beans to the Left

Chuck Zimmerman

Dry CornIt’s getting a little dry here in parts of the midwest. This is corn on the right side of me as I was out and about this morning.

It’s not the worst that I saw when I was driving back from Louisville, KY on Wednesday though. I think the worst was in Illinois.

I’m sure it’s not a good feeling to see these plants all dried and shriveled. At least not yet.

Dry SoybeansIt’s not just corn feeling the heat and dry though. Soybeans are looking a little stressed out too.

This was outside the the car on the left side right about the same spot today in north central MO.

The leaves on these plants are curling up and there’s a growing amount of dry brown leaves on the ground under them.

Lots of big dry cracks in the ground too. It’s time for some rain.

Farming

Talking Nebraska Pork

Chuck Zimmerman

NE Pork TalkI just got the latest edition of the Pork Industry Report from the Nebraska Pork Producers Association delivered to me.

You can listen to this week’s program here: ne-pork.mp3

Now this should be in an rss feed which would make it a podcast! I looked all over the website but didn’t see it set up as such. NE Pork Talk is their publication. Sounds like the name of a podcast too. Good job Amy

I’m just saying. It’s an idea.

Ag Groups, Audio

Zimfo Bites

Laura McNamara

  • DuPont (NYSE: DD) and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory today announced they have entered into a multi-year research collaboration for crop genetics research on yield enhancement and development of enabling technologies in corn, soybeans and other important agricultural crops. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. “We’re eager to tap into the creativity of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory scientists and put our combined innovation to work in the challenges farmers face around the world,” said William S. Niebur, vice president – DuPont Crop Genetics Research and Development.
  • Associated Food Stores, operator of groceries throughout eight Mountain West and Western states, announced today that it has converted all 350 of its grocery delis to Nutra-Clear NT™ cooking oil from Bunge Oils. This new zero trans fat canola oil has the lowest saturated fat levels among the new trans fat alternatives, a high level of heart-healthy (omega-9) monounsaturated fat, and actually allows these delis to reduce the bad fats in fried items. “We are excited that Nutra-Clear NT™ gives us the opportunity to help get trans fat out of local diets, while also reducing saturated fat,” said Barry Holinski, Director of Bakery/Service Deli, Associated Food Stores. “Because many of the zero trans fat oils on the market actually raise saturated fat levels, it was important for us to find an oil that does not exchange one unhealthy fat for another.” Nutra-Clear NT™, a “next generation” Omega-9 Canola Oil, is made from naturally bred NEXERA™ canola seeds developed by Dow AgroSciences. Capacity to provide more than one billion pounds of Omega-9 Canola Oil enables the immediate conversion by foodservice and food processing companies to a zero trans fat alternative.
  • IRON Solutions, publisher of Official Guides, recently announced new enhancements that add more value to its guides of used equipment values. “By adding more value to our guides, we offer the gold standard in data,” says Dallas Blome, vice president, Guides. “When making equipment deals, we realize weak or old data costs dealers money. That’s why we’ve enhanced our data and offer the only guides with current, deep, regionalized and option-specific equipment data for the equipment industry.” Blome leads a team of editors that, for every reported equipment transaction, adjusts reports for options, hours and condition to normalize each piece of equipment’s net value. IRON Solutions Official Guides are sold in seven regionalized volumes throughout North America, providing the most specific geographical variances in equipment values. The Official Guides help customers make purchasing decisions, determine fair transaction values, guide dealers’ trade-in valuations and support responsible equipment financing.
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