The IFAJ Congress has concluded but AgWired coverage of the event has not. Over the next several days I’ll be featuring more interviews and video clips. Our schedule and internet access has worked against me a little bit. Cindy and I just got back into Graz where we’ll fly out early tomorrow for St. Louis. At the moment, the internet …
Portoroz From The Dock
Portoroz is a beautiful little town on the Adriatic coast. The weather changed last night as we came in from Austria and we’ve been getting some light sprinkles all morning. Cindy and I are getting ready to take an online break and will be meeting up with the rest of the Congress participants this afternoon. We’ve got a full evening …
Slovenia Minister of Agriculture
Greeting the IFAJ Congress at our first dinner in Portoroz was the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food, Iztok Jarc. He had a challenge because just prior to our dinner the weather changed completely and we had a drenching lightning storm. It forced the restaurant to make some major adjustments to the settings but finally we got everyone under cover …
Wood Pellets May Become Farm Product
Our first stop on the Tour III group yesterday was KWB, a company that manufactures biomass heating systems. Basically these are various size heaters using wood chips or wood pellets for fuel. I spoke with David Pock, the man who gave us an overview of their company philosophy and products. It seemed like a stretch to fit this visit into …
Packing Fresh Apples
On my first IFAJ tour stop I spoke with our host, Johann Scholler, Steirerfrucht. They are a fresh fruit packing facility. The main product is apples although they also handle pears and other fruit. Apples are the number one fresh fruit choice in Austria. After we left the plant we did visit a couple of different apple farms. We were …
The Beauty of Ljubljana
I think this is about the most time I’ve ever had in between posts from an event, including in Japan last year. Cindy and I are in Portoroz, Slovenia doing a little bit of catch up work in our hotel room. We were pretty much in and out of buses all day yesterday traveling down here from Graz, Austria. No …
Ag Community Invited to Attend AGROTAIN Grand Opening
Early next week AGROTAIN International, a division of Lange-Stegmann Company, will be holding a special grand opening event of new facilities in St. Louis and they want you to know that you’re invited to come on out. We had reporter Mike Rogers talk with Mike Stegmann, President, Lange-Stegmann, about the new facility and their grand opening. Listen to his interview …
Zimfo Bytes
The new AGCO Application Equipment photo library is now available online. This is your number one resource for hundreds of spraying related images. Veteran agri-marketer Neil Strong, Industry Relations Lead, Corporate Affairs for Syngenta Crop Protection announced he will retire in December 2008. Replacing him will be Jack Berens, a 26-year veteran of Syngenta Seeds. The National Corn Growers Association …
IFAJ President Chops Wood
He’s our outgoing IFAJ President and he’s also Paul Bunyon. No, actually he’s David Markey and this is one of Cindy’s pictures from tonight’s dinner which was held at Schloss Stainz. This is a beautiful old castle where we experienced more fine Austrian wines, some traditional local dance, music and really good food. I think Cindy said that David and …
IFAJ Congress Tours
We saw some beautiful countryside today on our tour outside of Graz. There were actually 3 different tours going on simultaneously. Mine focused on specialty crops (make that apples). Cindy went on one focused on biomass and there was one on mountain farming. We left the hotel after lunch and just got back from our dinner a little while ago. …