Thanks to the Lilly Endowment Inc. the National FFA Organization will be receiving a three-year, $1.5 million grant to support the mission and vision through their annual convention. The National FFA Convention & Expo returns to Indianapolis this fall, where it will stay until 2024. The event is considered to be the premier FFA event, with programs and competitions happening …
New NAMA President Matt Coniglio
The Agri-Marketing Conference has come and gone for this year and hopefully everyone has recovered. I think I have. The last item on my agenda for this year’s conference, put on by the National Agri-Marketing Association, was to interview the new President, Matt Coniglio, Penton Agriculture. In the photo you can see Matt is real happy to receive the gavel …
Senators Pleased EPA IG to Investigate Anti-Ag Billboards
Senators Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Jim Inhofe (R-OK) are pleased that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking action regarding a taxpayer funded, anti-farmer campaign in Washington state. The chairmen of the Senate agriculture and environment committees sent a letter to EPA’s inspector general earlier this month requesting an audit and investigation of an EPA grant to the Northwest Indian Fisheries …
Extension Services Keep Farmers Farming
The purpose of the federal cooperative extension program was to provide research for agriculture, helping individual farmers by serving the industry as a whole. Now a new study from Penn State University has taken a look at the effectiveness of those programs. Stephan Goetz writes in his paper that an estimated 137,000 farmers in the last 25 years would be …
Passing of Farm Broadcaster Rex Messersmith
Members of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting are sad to hear that former member Rex Messersmith, age 84, of Lincoln, Nebraska passed away April 15. Rex joined NAFB in 1956 and enjoyed a career in radio broadcasting for 55 years. He started as a Nebraska Co-op Extension Service specialist, was farm director and manager of WNAX radio in Yankton, …
2016 NAMA Student Marketing Competition Winners
I hope we have all recovered from all the happenings during the 2016 Agri-Marketing Conference. But I will go out on a limb and say the students who have spent the last year preparing for the student marketing competition and won are still on cloud nine. Congratulations to the University of Wisconsin-Madison students for taking those 1st place honors. The …
Zimfo Bytes
National Sorghum Producers is accepting applications for four positions on the NSP Board of Directors. St. Louis-based advertising agency, Paradowski, announced it has hired 10 new team members to join the company over the past month. United Fresh Produce Association is seeking a Manager of Marketing Communications. Total retail sales of 2WD and 4WD tractors and combines continue to track …
NCC Disputes Results of Turkish Investigation
Turkey is the second largest export market for U.S. cotton, but now that is being threatened by what the National Cotton Council (NCC) maintains are false allegations. The government of Turkey has claimed the United States dumped cotton into the Turkish market, injuring their domestic prices. They have now released their final decision, based on their investigation of the incident. …
#Plant16 Already on a Roll
The #Plant16 hash tag has been burning up Twitter in the past week as corn planting jumped up to 13% compared to the five year average of eight percent. According to USDA, planting progress is now ahead of average by 37 percentage points in Missouri, which at 58% planted nearly a quarter of its crop last week. Iowa, Kansas and …
#NAMA16 @Brownfield Beach Bash
It was a perfect night for a Brownfield Beach Bash last week in Kansas City at the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) convention. Brownfield Ag News carried on its annual tradition of the Thursday night part at NAMA and this year the venue was the Shark Bar in the Power and Light district. Guests sported flowered leis and carried tropical drinks …