Welcome to the 2013 Commodity Classic. The ZimmComm Team is here. Actually, Cindy is off on an adventure with our sponsor, BASF, while I got things started here in the Commodity Classic Media Room. Jamie Johansen will be joining us late this evening. So expect lots of stories from the trade show, the general sessions, participating organizations, press conferences. We’ll …
Bayer CropScience Announces Balance GT Soybeans
We recently knew it as FG72 Soybeans. Now it is Balance GT Soybeans! Bayer CropScience and MS Technologies announced the new soybean performance system during the annual Ag Issues Forum here in Kissimmee. To learn more about it I got perspectives and information from both sides by visiting with Lauren August, MS Technologies Brand Manager, and Eric Peters, Soybean Herbicide …
Bayer Ag Issues Forum Sustainability Discussion
Sustainability. What does it mean to you? There is no real good definition. I like what Frank Sesno, moderator for the Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum (pictured on left), said during his introduction of a session on day one, “I think if I had my druthers I’d ban it altogether because it’s such a catch all.” That it is! The …
8th Annual Bayer Ag Issues Forum
After surviving an evening of entertainment with Jerrod Niemann (photos in album) the agricultural journalists gathered here in Kissimmee for the 8th annual Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum are up and at ’em for round two. I spoke with Beth Roden, Bayer CropScience Director of Communications, to find out about the history of the event and how it is going. …
Taking a Look Back at Agriculture From the Future
Let’s pretend we’re in the future as in 2025 or 2050 and take a look back at agricultural production. Let’s do it with Rich Kottmeyer, Senior Executive and Global Agriculture & Food Production Leader, Accenture. That’s what we watched Rich do on stage during the Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum and that’s what I asked him to do when we …
Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum
Although I still have a couple of interviews to share from The Annual Meat Conference I have moved on down the agriblogging highway to Kissimmee, FL for the Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum. Here are some of our ag journalists attending this annual pre-Commodity Classic program. We will be hearing from the leadership of Bayer who are talking about how …
Economic Outlook in Meat Industry
Our morning two general session featured several economists including Steve Meyer, President, Paragon Economics. I talked with him afterward to get a few of his thoughts on how things are looking for the meat industry. The number one item is weather. Of course Steve says that’s harder to predict than the markets! Steve says we’re on such a tight supply …
Fact vs. Fiction in Food Crisis Management
Crisis management. We hear a lot about it and any company wants to be ready to handle one if it should happen. How do you deal with fact vs. fiction, especially in the food industry? At today’s Annual Meat Conference we heard from Sue Borra, Senior Vice President of Communications, Food Marketing Institute and Eric Mittenthal, Vice President, Public Affairs, …
Sponsoring Great American Wheat Harvest
During the recent AG CONNECT Expo Conrad Weaver unveiled the new trailer for The Great American Wheat Harvest film documentary. Today we’re announcing that AgWired has come on board as a Silver Sponsor! We’ll be updating you throughout the film’s production process with interviews and more. To hear what another sponsor has to say I talked with Barry Nelson, John …
Resistance Fighter of the Year Award Winner
Fighting weed resistance is becoming more and more important and one way Syngenta has been working on it is with their Resistance Fighter of the Year Program. Here’s one of this year’s winners, Scott Stallbaumer from Saint Marys, KS. I met him in the Syngenta exhibit at the National Farm Machinery Show. The other winner is Scott Holder from Boyle, …